LibGuides: Islington Branch Book Club: "Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait?" by Tina Cassidy

About the Author: Tina Cassidy

Tina Cassidy was born in Massachusetts, USA, and she has a background in journalism and communications. She attended Emerson College in Boston, where she studied journalism and later worked as a reporter for various publications.

Cassidy has written for prominent newspapers and magazines, including The Boston Globe, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. She has covered a wide range of topics, including politics, culture, and women's issues, demonstrating her versatility and depth as a journalist.

In addition to her journalism career, Cassidy is also an accomplished author. She has written several non-fiction books that explore various aspects of history, culture, and society. Some of her notable works include "Jackie After O: One Remarkable Year When Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Defied Expectations and Rediscovered Her Dreams" and "Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait?: Alice Paul, Woodrow Wilson, and the Fight for the Right to Vote."

Cassidy's writing is characterized by meticulous research, engaging storytelling, and a deep commitment to uncovering untold stories and forgotten histories. Her books often shed light on the experiences of women and marginalized communities, offering fresh perspectives on familiar historical events.

Overall, Tina Cassidy is a respected author and journalist known for her insightful writing and dedication to exploring important issues in society and history through her work.

Synopsis

Woodrow Wilson lands in Washington, DC, in March of 1913, a day before he is set to take the presidential oath of office. He is surprised by the modest turnout. The crowds and reporters are blocks away from Union Station, watching a parade of eight thousand suffragists on Pennsylvania Avenue in a first-of-its-kind protest organized by a twenty-five-year-old activist named Alice Paul. The next day, The New York Times calls the procession "one of the most impressively beautiful spectacles ever staged in this country." Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait? weaves together two storylines: the trajectories of Alice Paul and Woodrow Wilson, two apparent opposites. Paul's procession of suffragists resulted in her being granted a face-to-face meeting with President Wilson, one that would lead to many meetings and much discussion, but little progress for women. With no equality in sight and patience wearing thin, Paul organized the first group to ever picket in front of the White House lawn--night and day, through sweltering summer mornings and frigid fall nights. From solitary confinement, hunger strikes, and the psychiatric ward to ever more determined activism, Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait? reveals the courageous, near-death journey it took, spearheaded in no small part by Alice Paul's leadership, to grant women the right to vote in America.

Discussion Questions

How does Tina Cassidy portray the suffrage movement in "Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait?" What key events, figures, and strategies are highlighted in the book?
The book focuses on the relationship between Alice Paul and President Woodrow Wilson. How does Cassidy explore this dynamic, and what impact did their interactions have on the suffrage movement?
Cassidy discusses the strategies employed by suffragists, including protests, hunger strikes, and lobbying efforts. Which of these tactics do you believe was most effective, and why?
The book examines the internal divisions within the suffrage movement, particularly between the National Woman's Party and the National American Woman Suffrage Association. How did these divisions shape the movement's strategies and outcomes?
Cassidy highlights the role of media and public perception in shaping the suffrage movement. How did suffragists use media to their advantage, and how did public opinion evolve over the course of the movement?
One of the central themes of the book is the tension between the ideal of democracy and the reality of inequality in America. How does Cassidy explore this tension through the lens of the suffrage movement?
"Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait?" discusses the intersectionality of the suffrage movement with other social and political issues of the time, such as race and class. How did these intersecting factors influence the strategies and outcomes of the movement?
Cassidy examines the global context of the suffrage movement, including the influence of international events such as World War I. How did global events shape the trajectory of the suffrage movement in the United States?
The book highlights the sacrifices made by suffragists, including arrests, imprisonment, and hunger strikes. How did these personal sacrifices contribute to the eventual success of the suffrage movement?
"Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait?" concludes with the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. How does Cassidy assess the significance of this milestone in the broader context of American history and democracy?

MLN Materials

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spoken CD

Audiobook Versions

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The Woman's Hour by Elaine Weiss
Call Number: 324.6 Weiss
Nashville, August 1920. Thirty-five states have ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, twelve have rejected or refused to vote, and one last state is needed. It all comes down to Tennessee, the moment of truth for the suffragists, after a seven-decade crusade. The opposing forces include politicians with careers at stake, liquor companies, railroad magnates, and a lot of racists who don't want black women voting. And then there are the "Antis"--women who oppose their own enfranchisement, fearing suffrage will bring about the moral collapse of the nation. They all converge in a boiling hot summer for a vicious face-off replete with dirty tricks, betrayals and bribes, bigotry, Jack Daniel's, and the Bible. Following a handful of remarkable women who led their respective forces into battle, along with appearances by Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Frederick Douglass, and Eleanor Roosevelt, The Woman's Hour is an inspiring story of activists winning their own freedom in one of the last campaigns forged in the shadow of the Civil War, and the beginning of the great twentieth-century battles for civil rights.
American Women's Suffrage: Voices from the Long Struggle for the Vote 1776-1965 (LOA #332) by Susan Ware (Editor)
Call Number: 324.623 American
For the first time, here is the full, definitive story of the movement for voting rights in all its diversity and intersectionality, told through the voices of the women and men who lived it: the most recognizable figures in the campaign for women's suffrage, like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, but also the black, Chinese, and American Indian women and men who were not only essential to the movement but expanded its directions and aims, and the anti-suffragists who worried about where the country would head if suffrage were universal. The full story of the long and diverse movement that led to women receiving the right to vote-in their own voices.
The Suffragents by Brooke Kroeger
Call Number: 324.623 Kroeger
The Suffragents is the untold story of how some of New York's most powerful men formed the Men's League for Woman Suffrage, which grew between 1909 and 1917 from 150 founding members into a force of thousands across thirty-five states. Brooke Kroeger explores the formation of the League and the men who instigated it to involve themselves with the suffrage campaign, what they did at the behest of the movement's female leadership, and why. She details the National American Woman Suffrage Association's strategic decision to accept their organized help and then to deploy these influential new allies as suffrage foot soldiers, a role they accepted with uncommon grace. Led by such luminaries as Oswald Garrison Villard, John Dewey, Max Eastman, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and George Foster Peabody, members of the League worked the streets, the stage, the press, and the legislative and executive branches of government. In the process, they helped convince waffling politicians, a dismissive public, and a largely hostile press to support the women's demand. Together, they swayed the course of history.
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter by E. Stanly Godbold
Call Number: BIOG CARTER Family
This book is a dual biography of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, the powerful First Couple who attempted to use their presidency and their long post-presidency to bring peace, human rights, and justice to all peoples of the world. It describes in intimate detail their tumultuous involvement in national and international politics as well as their personal lives. From intensive research in presidential archives, declassified documents, personal papers and interviews, the Carters emerge as among the greatest peacemakers of their century. The book includes new revelations about the Camp David Accords, the normalization of relations with China, the infamous "October Surprise," and other events of their presidency. Famous for their work with Habitat for Humanity, they have devoted most of their time, post-presidency, to the Carter Center, an institution they founded to promote universal good health, democracy, and peace. When Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, he immediately declared that the prize belonged equally to Rosalynn and the Carter Center. Poet, writer, Sunday School teacher, Jimmy Carter has remained active until well into his nineties.
Untold Power by Rebecca Boggs Roberts
Call Number: BIOGRAPHY Wilson
A nuanced portrait of the first acting woman president, written with fresh and cinematic verve by a leading historian on women's suffrage and power While this nation has yet to elect its first woman president--and though history has downplayed her role--just over a century ago a woman became the nation's first acting president. In fact, she was born in 1872, and her name was Edith Bolling Galt Wilson. She climbed her way out of Appalachian poverty and into the highest echelons of American power and in 1919 effectively acted as the first woman president of the U.S. (before women could even vote nationwide) when her husband, Woodrow Wilson, was incapacitated. Beautiful, brilliant, charismatic, catty, and calculating, she was a complicated figure whose personal quest for influence reshaped the position of First Lady into one of political prominence forever. And still nobody truly understands who she was. For the first time, we have a biography that takes an unflinching look at the woman whose ascent mirrors that of many powerful American women before and since, one full of the compromises and complicities women have undertaken throughout time in order to find security for themselves and make their mark on history. She was a shape-shifter who was obsessed with crafting her own reputation, at once deeply invested in exercising her own power while also opposing women's suffrage. With narrative verve and fresh eyes, Untold Power is a richly overdue examination of one of American history's most influential, complicated women as well as the surprising and often absurd realities of American politics.