E. Sylvia Pankhurst: Portrait of a Radical - Hardcover

Although Pankhurst (1882-1960) may not have had quite the historical significance she claimed for herself in her autobiographical books ( The Suffragette, etc.), she was a remarkable womana charismatic leader, a born fighter and, as Romero calls her in this lucid, well-documented biography, a "multi-sided radical publicist" whose career was virtually synonymous with English social protest in her time. She was the daughter of famed suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst; lover of Keir Hardy, founder of the Labour Party; friend of Bertrand Russell and Bernard Shaw; and she treated Lenin as an equal. She campaigned relentlessly for women's suffrage, the rights of unmarried mothers, pacifism, communism and, finally and somewhat incongruously, the cause of Emperor Haile Selassie. As Romero's interviews with some who knew her attest, she was a powerful figure about whom it was impossible to feel neutral. Romero is a visiting fellow at Johns Hopkins University. Photos.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Sylvia was one of the militant Pankhurst family suffragettes but, breaking with her mother and sister, she turned her attention to working-class women's rights and their immediate needswork, food, child care. But her enthusiasms also included pacifism, which she forsook to fight against fascism, and for a quarter of a century she espoused the cause of Ethiopia. A Pan-Africanist, she spoke against apartheid in the 1950s. She was also a journalist and author. In all these activities, she led with her heart, not her head. The author's painstaking investigation has pulled together Pankhurst's many lives. The book will be of interest to students of 20th century Africa as well as to those interested in British social protest. A deeper exploration of the interesting psychology of this radical rebel in a radical family remains to be written. For academic and research libraries. Mary Drake McFeely, Univ. of Georgia Libs., Athens
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.