The Solitude of Self: Thinking About Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902)—was the greatest feminist thinker of the nineteenth century—so argues Vivian Gornick in this trenchant, vivid biographical essay. In a lifetime devoted to abolition and universal suffrage, Stanton nurtured a passion for equality uniquely American in character, yet in revolt against American religious feeling. As Gornick writes, "We are beginning where she left off."

The Solitude of Self is a profound, distilled meditation on Stanton's insight, on its power and its threat—and on why feminism has thrived in this country as nowhere else—from one of the most incisive critics of out time.