The University of Texas at Tyler Libraries

Alva Vanderbilt Belmont : Unlikely Champion of Women''s Rights

By: Hoffert, Sylvia DMaterial type: TextTextSeries: eBooks on DemandPublisher: Bloomington, IN : Indiana University Press, 2011Description: 1 online resource (291 p.)ISBN: 9780253005601Subject(s): Belmont, Alva, 1853-1933 -- Political and social views | Belmont, Alva, 1853-1933 | Feminists -- United States -- Biography | Rich people -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography | Socialites -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography | Suffragists -- United States -- Biography | Women -- Suffrage --United States -- History -- 20th century | Women political activists -- United States -- Biography | Women’s rights -- United States -- History -- 20th centuryGenre/Form: Electronic books.Additional physical formats: Print version:: Alva Vanderbilt Belmont : Unlikely Champion of Women''s RightsDDC classification: 305.42092 | 323.34092 LOC classification: HQ1413 .B44 H64 2012Online resources: Click here to view this ebook.
Contents:
CONTENTS; ACKNOWLEDGMENTS; INTRODUCTION; 1. An Impossible Child; 2. Every Inch a General; 3. A Sex Battle; 4. Immortalizing the Lady in Affecting Prose; 5. Belmont's Orphan Child; 6. The Last Word; Postscript: My Turn; APPENDIX Belmont's Financial Contributions to Woman's Rights; NOTES; BIBLIOGRAPHY; INDEX
Summary: A New York socialite and feminist, Alva Vanderbilt Belmont was known to be domineering, temperamental, and opinionated. Her resolve to get her own way regardless of the consequences stood her in good stead when she joined the American woman suffrage movement in 1909. Thereafter, she used her wealth, her administrative expertise, and her social celebrity to help convince Congress to pass the 19th Amendment and then to persuade the exhausted leaders of the National Woman's Party to initiate a world wide equal rights campaign. Sylvia D. Hoffert argues that Belmont was a feminist visionary and that her financial support was crucial to the success of the suffrage and equal rights movements. She also shows how Belmont's activism, and the money she used to support it, enriches our understanding of the personal dynamics of the American woman's rights movement. Her analysis of Belmont's memoirs illustrates how Belmont went about the complex and collaborative process of creating her public self.
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Item type Current location Call number URL Status Date due Barcode
Electronic Book UT Tyler Online
Online 		HQ1413 .B44 H64 2012 (Browse shelf) http://uttyler.eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=670315 Available EBL670315

CONTENTS; ACKNOWLEDGMENTS; INTRODUCTION; 1. An Impossible Child; 2. Every Inch a General; 3. A Sex Battle; 4. Immortalizing the Lady in Affecting Prose; 5. Belmont's Orphan Child; 6. The Last Word; Postscript: My Turn; APPENDIX Belmont's Financial Contributions to Woman's Rights; NOTES; BIBLIOGRAPHY; INDEX

A New York socialite and feminist, Alva Vanderbilt Belmont was known to be domineering, temperamental, and opinionated. Her resolve to get her own way regardless of the consequences stood her in good stead when she joined the American woman suffrage movement in 1909. Thereafter, she used her wealth, her administrative expertise, and her social celebrity to help convince Congress to pass the 19th Amendment and then to persuade the exhausted leaders of the National Woman's Party to initiate a world wide equal rights campaign. Sylvia D. Hoffert argues that Belmont was a feminist visionary and that her financial support was crucial to the success of the suffrage and equal rights movements. She also shows how Belmont's activism, and the money she used to support it, enriches our understanding of the personal dynamics of the American woman's rights movement. Her analysis of Belmont's memoirs illustrates how Belmont went about the complex and collaborative process of creating her public self.

Description based upon print version of record.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

In this nuanced biography, Hoffert (emer., Texas A&M) argues persuasively that wealthy philanthropist Alva Vanderbilt Belmont's contributions to the women's rights movement were as "noteworthy" as those of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Carrie Chapman Catt, and Alice Paul. Belmont not only gave thousands of dollars to women's suffrage campaigns and related initiatives, but also purchased buildings and furniture for them, paid their property taxes and insurance, and subsidized and sheltered several radical activists in the US and abroad from 1909 until her death in 1933. A demanding, often tyrannical New York-Newport socialite, Belmont carefully cultivated her own celebrity status in the US press, then manipulated it throughout her life to support political causes that would benefit all women. Hoffert's refined understanding of how a biographer's subjectivity shapes the narrative of someone else's life strengthens her engaging look at Belmont's place in history. In addition, her expert handling of the autobiographical source material reveals how intricately woven good biography can be. Since Belmont left no papers, the three memoirs that she dictated became crucial to understanding the legacy she attempted to build. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. M. A. McEuen Transylvania University

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Sylvia D. Hoffert is Emerita Professor of History at Texas A&M University and author of A History of Gender in America and Jane Grey Swisshem: An Unconventional Life.

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