Download Top 100 Full Audiobooks in History, 20th Century

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Title: Chasing Understanding in the Jungles of Vietnam

Subtitle: My Year as a Black Scarf

Author: Douglas Beed

Narrator: Malcolm Hillgartner

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-31-17

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Author Doug Beed relates his memories of the men and missions during his year (1968-69) as a combat soldier with the First Infantry Division in Vietnam. After two years of college he couldn't afford to continue, so he was forced to relinquish his student deferment and enter the draft. He tried various strategies to get a non-combat job; nevertheless, he ended up in the infantry and was assigned to Vietnam.

The stories in this book depict the year Doug spent in Alpha Company, where he spent days on patrols finding and killing North Vietnamese soldiers along the hundreds of miles of trails heading for the Saigon. These stories range from funny to tragic, from uplifting to extremely frustrating, and from touching to horrifying. This book gives the listener a sense of life in the infantry in 1968 and 1969.

Members Reviews:

A very good read for someone wanting to know about everyday life ...

A very good read for someone wanting to know about everyday life of a "grunt" in Vietnam. My husband was in country about the same time as Douglas Beed and Joe Fair. He was in the 1/2, but he was Charlie Company. Keep up the good writing!

Honest look at a soldier's experience

Doug Beed's book is one of the best books I've read about Vietnam (and I've read quite a few). It's not a history of the country or the war, not a political treatise, not an attempt at explaining cultural differences. It is a very good - and honest - description of life as a "grunt" (infantryman) in the Army in Vietnam.

I have always wondered about the daily life of soldiers - in any war - and Beed gives details of patrols, "jobs" (radioman, etc.), what they had to carry in their packs, daily routines, etc. He was in some pretty terrible places - lost many friends - but always just sticks to the facts. It seems he never lost his sense of humor, and even though he had to deal with some issues after his return (and is still dealing with them), the book is not depressing.

What I appreciated most were his comments about and descriptions of the Army leadership - sort of explains why we lost that little war in the jungle.

I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn something about the life of a soldier in Vietnam.

A pretty decent account of life in III Corps

From the 11 series Rifleman, somewhat different than many of the books about being a VN War grunt. Most have focused on life in the north I and II corps where the topography and other conditions were quite different - including the danged French rubber plantations and the obscene 700$US per damaged tree. Good read, especially in treating anger issues with the right tone white there against REMFs and jerks,

My time over there.

The aria was about the places that I served. I was a lifer, but in the sense that the auther of the book. We all trained in Hawaii With the 25th Infantry Division and went into Combat as a well train unit. I see the problem he encounter by not bing train as a unit. Most of my men were draftees and had no problems being a lifer.

Good read

Thank you for sharing such trying times in your life. Very much appreciate the honesty and thank you for your service

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Title: John F. Kennedy: A Life from Beginning to End

Author: Hourly History

Narrator: Mark Wangerin

Format: Unabridged

Length: 59 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-18-17

Publisher: Hourly History

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

John F. Kennedy is the president that everyone knows. He was a rich man's son, an athlete, a war hero, a ladies' man, an author, a president - his face rendered forever young because the last time Americans saw him, he was riding in a convertible in Dallas, his glamorous wife at his side. Then the bullets struck, and the assassinated president became a legend, the truth of his life obscured by his tragic and untimely death. But JFK had more depth to his character than the magazine covers indicated.

Inside you will hear about....

The rich man's son was the grandson of Irishmen who knew what it was to be denied jobs because Irish weren't welcome in Boston. The athlete suffered from poor health all his life, from a bad back to Addison's disease. The war hero whose PT-109 boat became part of his campaign legend was the son who survived; elder brother Joe, flying on a secret mission, was killed for his heroism. The ladies' man loved his wife, but fidelity was not a concept revered by the Kennedy men. The Pulitzer Prize that he was awarded for Profiles in Courage should have gone to the person who actually wrote it. In 1963, death in Dallas ended his first term as president, bringing an end to the optimism that he inaugurated when he narrowly defeated Vice President Richard Nixon in the 1960 election. But the Kennedy legend, like Camelot, lives forever.

Members Reviews:

Well Worth Reading!

"John F. Kennedy: A Life From Beginning to End," published by Hourly History, LTD, is advertised as a concise history of John Kennedy, meant to be read in an hour. The book lives up to the billing, as I was able to finish it within that time. This is a clever concept; and the book will be especially beneficial to younger readers who did not live through the tragic events of Kennedyâs life, but are interested in learning more about him. Even though it is a short biography, the book serves as a useful âprimerâ on John Kennedy, and covers all the major events of his life, including his upbringing in Hyannis Port, his heroic exploits in World War II, his early political ambitions, his courtship and marriage to socialite Jacqueline Bouvier, the 1960 presidential debates and election, the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the Cuban Missile crisis, and his assassination.

What makes the book valuable is that it does not attempt to âsugar-coatâ the Kennedys, as many other biographies do. We are told of the ruthless ambition of his domineering, power-hungry father, Joseph Kennedy. The book covers Joseph Kennedyâs questionable âbusiness operationsâ during the Depression, often characterized as âbootlegging,â that resulted in the Kennedy fortune; the early Kennedy alliance with Senator Joseph McCarthy; and Joseph Kennedyâs purported âpulling stringsâ to get his son elected.

We are also told of John Kennedyâs many infidelities and the toll they took on his marriage: his affair with a possible German spy, his dalliance with Marilyn Monroe, and his sharing a mistress with a known Mafia figure. These and other frailties are all covered without any attempt to gloss over them, and tend to humanize the man.

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Title: Al Capone and the 1933 World's Fair

Subtitle: The End of the Gangster Era in Chicago

Author: William Elliott Hazelgrove

Narrator: Chris Andrew Ciulla

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-16-17

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Al Capone and the 1933 World's Fair is a historical look at Chicago during the darkest days of the Great Depression - the story of Chicago fighting the hold that organized crime had on the city to be able to put on the 1933 World's Fair.

William Elliott Hazelgrove provides the exciting and sprawling history behind the 1933 World's Fair, the last of the golden age. He reveals the story of the six millionaire businessmen, dubbed The Secret Six, who beat Al Capone at his own game, ending the gangster era as prohibition was repealed. The story of an intriguing woman, Sally Rand, who embodied the World's Fair with her own rags to riches story and brought sex into the open. The story of Rufus and Charles Dawes, who gave the fair a theme and then found financing in the worst economic times the country had ever experienced. The story of the most corrupt mayor of Chicago, William Thompson, who owed his election to Al Capone; and the mayor who followed him, Anton Cermak, who was murdered months before the fair was opened by an assassin many said was hired by Al Capone.

But, most of all, it's a story about a city fighting for survival in the darkest of times; and a shining light of hope called A Century of Progress.

Critic Reviews:

"Hazelgrove becomes with each book a better writer...

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Title: The Gallipoli Campaign of World War I

Subtitle: The History and Legacy of the Ottoman Empire's Lone Victory During the Great War

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Kenneth Ray

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 34 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-13-17

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Early in the war, the Ottomans knew the Dardanelles strait would most certainly be attacked and had prepared significant defenses. The plan drafted by the then First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, was meant to destroy Ottoman defenses along the Dardanelles. However, Allied forces comprised of British, Irish, Australian, and New Zealand troops were unable to penetrate the Ottoman defenses, advancing only about 100 meters from the shores. The Ottomans, led by German General Liman von Sanders, further reinforced their positions. The later attempt of the British to establish a new beachhead was more successful, yet the British government refused to send significant reinforcements.

In December 1915, what was certainly the most successful part of the Gallipoli offensive, the evacuation of the British forces began. The Ottomans' successful defense of the Dardanelles led to Churchill's resignation. More importantly, it bolstered the rising popularity of Mustafa Kemal, then Lieutenant Colonel, and offered hope that the Ottomans could indeed counter-balance their territorial losses.

The successful defense of Gallipoli, however, convinced both Enver and Djemal that a second operation should be launched. Reinforcements arrived from Gallipoli and the Ottomans launched the second attempt in August 1916. British forces had, however, moved eastward toward Palestine, and they defeated the Ottoman forces at the Battle of Romani. The battle was the first clear British victory over the Ottomans and their German allies, resulting in a successful counter-offensive that led British General Edmund Allenby in Jerusalem. A final push with the Megiddo offensive and renewed campaign in Mesopotamia brought Entente forces even further into the Ottoman Empire.

The Arab revolt has been engraved in modern memories by movies such as Lawrence of Arabia as a widespread nationalistic movement against the cruel Ottoman occupier. The reality is far more complex.

The fall of the Ottoman Empire set the geopolitical scene of the new Middle East. In 1920, two years after the end of the war, the region was already experiencing growing instability. On April 4, Arab riots broke out in Jerusalem, fueled by the growing hostility against the Zionist movement. The British passivity would convince one of the Jewish leaders, Vladimir Jabotinsky (the future founder of the Israeli right wing), of the strategic necessity of a strong Jewish military as the core of the future state.

Just two weeks later in Turkey, the Grand National Assembly in Ankara set the foundation of the Turkish state, opening the way for eight years of reforms. In Iraq, a Shiite revolt broke out in the south, as locals demanded the creation of an Islamic state.

These challenges, divides, and conflicts all stem from the power vacuum slowly left by the once powerful Ottoman Empire, and much of it stemmed from the events surrounding Gallipoli in 1915.

Members Reviews:

Highly Recommended

The 1914 Gallipoli was the only victory won by the Ottoman Empire in all of World War, and the most humiliating part of Winston Churchill's

political career. He was First Lord of the Admiralty, and lost this position as a result of this defeat.

World War I was miserable war in a way no other was. It was a war in which ground had to be taken again and again.

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Title: Titanic: The Story of the Unsinkable Ship

Author: Hourly History

Narrator: John Riddle

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 18 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-05-17

Publisher: Hourly History

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

It has been more than one hundred years since the RMS Titanic sank to the bottom of the North Atlantic ocean. The disaster has captivated history buffs and non-history buffs alike, and it is easy to see why. Some of the most illustrious people of the day were on board: some survived, and some did not. Legends abound about whether the ship's maiden voyage was cursed. And then there is the ship itself: arguably the most luxurious vessel to ever travel oversea.

Members Reviews:

The Excellent Account of the Sinking of the "Unsinkable Ship"

Since man first ventured onto the oceans human history has recorded many ship wrecks with significant loss of life. Argueably the most memorable sea diaster in history, and the one I find most fasinating for reasons I will discuss in this review, is the sinking of RMS Titanic on April 14-15, 1912. As described in the author's narative, after boarding the crew and most passangers, the RMS Titanic, advertised as "the Ship of Dreams" and "Unsinkable", began her maiden voyage on Wednesday April 10, 1912 from Southhampton, England sailing to Queenstown, Ireland, to take on more passengers. The RMS Titanic, the newest addition to the prestigious White Star Line Company, with 2,223 passengers and crew aboard steamed out of Queenstown, on the morning of April11, 1912 travling the long established North Atlantic shipping lane, bound for New York City. Cruising at near top speed, without incident April 11, 12, 13, and 14. The Titanic crew did their jobs diligently, and the passengers of all classes enjoyed the beautiful decor, wonderful food, and the many other amenities available to them. The weather was very pleasant until it became quite cool the morning of April 14. The Titanic received Iceberg Warnings that same morning and took appropriate percautions. At 1140 pm April 14, lookouts reported the an iceberg, and despitei taking prompt and correct action the bridge officer was unable to avoid the collision with an iceberg to the right of her bow which tore through 5 of the 7 water tight sections of the ship. First responders reported that the ship was taking on massive amounts of sea water, with14 feet of water aboard at 1159 pm. The Captain ordered abandon ship shortly there after. Although Titanic carried the number of lifeboats required by law, they could only hold 1000 souls. Further the lack of lifeboat training and drills for crew or passengers resulted in only 705 people surviving the diaster. At 0240 am on April 15, 1912, while the the ships orcastra played on the great ships sank into the frigid North Atlantic waters with more than 1,500 souls still onboard.

This book was written and published by Hourly Histories. This publisher offers a collection of hundreds of concise historical accounts designed to provide the reader with well researched and written history texts about important people, places, and events in human history, that can be read one--two hour Their greater purpose is to increase reader interest in history and promote reading of history books.

This was a throughly researched skillfully written account. The author addressed the concept, design, construction, and engineering of the Titanic. Because of her extreme size her construction and launching from dry dock represented some interesting challanges.

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Title: The Flight 981 Disaster

Subtitle: Tragedy, Treachery, and the Pursuit of Truth

Author: Samme Chittum

Narrator: Keith Sellon-Wright

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-03-17

Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

On June 12, 1972, a powerful explosion rocked American Airlines Flight 96 a mere five minutes after its takeoff from Detroit. The explosion ripped a gaping hole in the bottom of the aircraft and jammed the hydraulic controls. Miraculously, despite the damage and ensuing chaos, the pilots were able to land the plane safely.

Less than two years later, on March 3, 1974, a sudden, forceful blowout tore through Turk Hava Yollari (THY) Flight 981 from Paris to London. THY Flight 981 was not as lucky as Flight 96: it crashed in a forest in France, and none of the 346 people onboard survived.

What caused the mysterious explosions? Were they linked? Could they have been prevented? This book addresses those questions and more, offering a fascinating look at the two dramatic aviation disasters.

Members Reviews:

"A plane put together by committee..."

On Sunday, March 3, 1974, Turkish Airlines flight #981, departing Paris/Orly Airport on a routine flight to London/Heathrow, fell from the sky soon after takeoff. The plane crashed into a forest called Ermenonville and 346 "souls" - crew and passengers - lay scattered in tiny pieces, amid the detritus of the DC10 which had carried them to their deaths. That plane had crashed because a cargo door had come loose during the take-off, causing an explosive decompression, which collapsed part of the floor, severing most of the hydraulics needed in flying the plane. In her book, "The Flight 981 Disaster: Tragedy, Treachery, and the Pursuit of Truth", author Samme Chittum tells why those poor souls needn't have died that day.

The same accident had happened on an American Airlines DC10 in 1972, on a flight which had just taken off from Detroit , heading to Buffalo. The pilots felt a bang, part of the passenger floor collapsed, severing the hydraulics, and the plane was almost uncontrollable. Luckily, the flight's captain, wary about the DC10, had taken extra instructions in how to fly an uncontrolled plane, and he and the copilot, were able to steer the plane and make a controlled crash landing at Detroit. No one was killed that day, but the FAA looked at what had caused the incident. They found that the rear cargo door was not always locking and there was very little way to determine from the outside if the baggage handlers had the door latch in place. The FAA made several suggestions to the manufacturer of the plane - McDonnell Douglas - as well as to the carriers who already had bought the plane, as to how to fix the latch mechanism. Because of...politics, or corporate worry about the costs of the upgrades, or sheer incompetence, many of the "suggestions" were not implemented on some of the planes. On plane #29, which crashed in March, 1974, the lack of fixing the problems with the door and the vents resulted in the deaths of 346 people.

In addition to looking at the two crashes attributable to the cargo door problems, Chittum writes about two other fatal crashes of DC10's. One was in Chicago in 1979 - Memorial Day weekend - when American #191, departing on a routine flight to Los Angeles, crashed into a field at the airport, killing all 271 passengers and crew members, plus two people on the ground. The problem was not the cargo door; rather, the left wing engine fell off during take off, sending the plane into the field.

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Title: The Book Smugglers

Subtitle: Partisans, Poets, and the Race to Save Jewish Treasures from the Nazis

Author: David E. Fishman

Narrator: P.J. Ochlan

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-03-17

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

The Book Smugglers is the nearly unbelievable story of ghetto residents who rescued thousands of rare books and manuscripts - first from the Nazis and then from the Soviets - by hiding them on their bodies, burying them in bunkers, and smuggling them across borders. It is a tale of heroism and resistance, of friendship and romance, and of unwavering devotion-including the readiness to risk one's life - to literature and art.

And it is entirely true. Based on Jewish, German, and Soviet documents, including diaries, letters, memoirs, and the author's interviews with several of the story's participants, The Book Smugglers chronicles the daring activities of a group of poets turned partisans and scholars turned smugglers in Vilna, "The Jerusalem of Lithuania".

Members Reviews:

Magnificent Obsession to Save Jewish Culture

The Jews of the Vilna ghetto (now Vilnius, Lithuania) during the Nazi occupation had their own group of characters who served as a form of Monuments Men endeavoring to save their culture contained in manuscripts, various documents, religious items, and more from removal to Germany or destruction. The author masterfully tells about the poets and their friends who smuggled items to safe places to be found later only to find that the items had to be smuggled again from the grasp of the Soviet Union. Some of the poetry and lyrics for songs are incorporated into the story of the community. The holdings in the community were among 43 of the top libraries that Germany wanted to include in their master library. The character development and the personal stories make this an excellent book.

This book sheds light on a type of Jewish resistance and optimism during the Nazi occupation. Most people would not think of how important the books and other documents were during the WWII and later timeframe.

The Book Smugglers adds more depth to the story of the books and libraries looted by adding the characters. Anders Rydell told part of the story of the stolen libraries in The Book Thieves...

Read or listen to The Book Smugglers soon, maybe even read it again.

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Title: A Timeline History of Hezbollah

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Dan Gallagher

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 44 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-18-17

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Ratings: 2 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

The phrase "east meets west" is a worn cliché, but it is entirely appropriate for Lebanon, which is situated at the western end of the trade routes from Asia and the eastern end of the sea routes to Europe through the Mediterranean. It has thus bred seafarers and traders, and even today there is a widespread diaspora of Lebanese merchants.

As one of the most diverse nations in the Middle East, Lebanon has at times enjoyed a strong reputation for its cultural history (with Beirut often being compared to Paris), but it has also experienced destructive conflicts sown by social, political and religious divides, both within itself and among its neighbors. All of these factors would ultimately contribute to the formation of Hezbollah ("The Party of God"), the Shi'ite militia that is now widely considered one of the most powerful non-state groups in the world.

Though their name is instantly recognizable across much of the globe, the history of Hezbollah is extremely complex. Various interests in Lebanon led to the eruption of civil war in the country in 1975, which included the participation of Syria, and the fighting was compounded when Israel invaded and occupied the southern part of Lebanon to combat members of the Palestine Liberation Organization and other Palestinians who had taken refuge in camps there. The result was a witch's brew of inter-connected alliances between forces in Lebanon, which consisted of Shiite militias, Sunni militias, Christian militias, Druze militias, Syria, and Israel. In the early 1980s, Hezbollah formed with the goal of ending Israeli occupation of Lebanon, which would not fully occur until 1999, when Israel began a unilateral withdrawal from the security zone in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah filled in the vacuum in southern Lebanon and took credit for forcing Israel out, thus bolstering their standing in Lebanon, especially among the Shiite community.

Far from being a local militia, however, Hezbollah has spent the past decade expanding its geopolitical influence across the Middle East. In addition to playing an important role in Lebanese politics (and recently becoming part of the government), Hezbollah cultivated ties with Syria, Iran, and Hamas in opposition to Israel, which fought a controversial and deadly summer war against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in 2006 but failed in their mission to destroy or severely damage them. And with the Arab Spring having consequences across the region and particularly in Syria, the ties between the different state and non-state actors are constantly evolving.

A Timeline History of Hezbollah chronicles this complex state of affairs, charting the rise of the organization to power, the influential leaders behind it, the group's fighting against Israel, and what the future might hold. This history will bring listeners up to speed on one of the world's most important groups today.

Members Reviews:

Not without some redeeming qualities but...

there's much better out there. Perhaps it was the brevity but overall it seemed the author laid it on thicker than it needed to be in the thinly veiled praising of Hezbollah.

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Title: Summary, Analysis, and Review of Kate Moore's 'The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women'

Author: Start Publishing Notes

Narrator: Michael Gilboe

Format: Unabridged

Length: 28 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-13-17

Publisher: Start Publishing Notes

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Please Note: This is a key takeaways and analysis of the book and not the original book.

Start Publishing Notes' Summary, Analysis, and Review of Kate Moore's 'The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women' includes a summary of the book, review, analysis & key takeaways, and detailed "About the Author" section.

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore is a gruesome account of the effects of radium on young women who worked with radium-based paint in the first part of the twentieth century. Centering on two exploitative radium plants in Orange, New Jersey and Ottawa, Illinois, the sad story follows the lives and deaths of female workers who became known as the radium girls. Radium has been known to be a dangerous substance since 1901, but it wasn't always widely recognized as such. This was for a lot of reasons, including the fragmented medical community, a lack of regulation in the United States, and the general sense of awe surrounding radium, which was then known as a miraculous material. When a watch dial-painting studio opened in Newark, New Jersey in 1916, young women in their teens and twenties clamored to work there. Little did they know the radium-based paint they used would poison their bodies and, eventually, steal their lives.

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Title: Gilded Suffragists

Subtitle: The New York Socialites who Fought for Women's Right to Vote

Author: Johanna Neuman

Narrator: C.S.E. Cooney

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-05-17

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

In the early 20th century over 200 of New York's most glamorous socialites joined the suffrage movement. Their names - Astor, Belmont, Rockefeller, Tiffany, Vanderbilt, Whitney, and the like - carried enormous public value. These women were the media darlings of their day because of the extravagance of their costume balls and the opulence of the French couture clothes, and they leveraged their social celebrity for political power, turning women's right to vote into a fashionable cause.

Although they were dismissed by critics as bored socialites "trying on suffrage as they might the latest couture designs from Paris", these gilded suffragists were at the epicenter of the great reforms known collectively as the Progressive Era. From championing education for women, to pursuing careers, and advocating for the end of marriage, these women were engaged with the swirl of change that swept through the streets of New York City.

Johanna Neuman restores these women to their rightful place in the story of women's suffrage. Understanding the need for popular approval for any social change, these socialites used their wealth, power, social connections, and style to excite mainstream interest and to diffuse resistance to the cause.

Members Reviews:

The few for the many

In the superb 2004 HBO film âIron Jawed Angelsâ, Molly Parker plays Mrs Emily Leighton, the wife of Senator Tom Leighton. When the film begins Emily, in line with the doctrine of the separate spheres, regards politics as her husbandâs realm and contents herself with supporting him and bringing up their two daughters. Gradually, though, she takes more of an interest in the suffragist cause. At first her support is financial but gradually she becomes more radical and more active, even joining those women who picketed Wilsonâs White House and as a consequence is imprisoned, and goes on hunger strike.

The character of Emily Leighton is fictional but Johanna Neumanâs book âGilded Suffragistsâ, subtitled âThe New York Socialites who fought for womenâs right to voteâ tells the actual story of those upper class women who lent their support, albeit in much less dramatic ways than Emily, to the campaign for votes for women, which eventually triumphed when women gained the right to vote in federal elections in 1920, as a result of the 19th Amendment.

According to Neuman it was over 200 socialites, including âwomen named Astor, Belmont, Harriman, Mackay, Rockefeller, Tiffany, Vanderbilt, and Whitneyâ who made a decisive contribution to that constitutional change when, in 1908, they reanimated the suffrage cause by exploiting their social status to âde-toxifyâ and normalize it.

This celebrity endorsement was, it is claimed, so potent - ultimately helping to âpush womenâs suffrage over the finish lineâ - because these women had the ear of the media and because their glamour undermined the anti-suffragist taunt that women who demanded their rights were somehow âunfeminineâ and threatened the emasculation of men.

Neuman is an award-winning journalist turned historian and âGilded Suffragistsâ, her second book, represents a revised version of her doctoral dissertation.