Lorissa Rinehart — Winning the Earthquake: The Life of Jeannette Rankin
The first major biography of Jeannette Rankin, the suffragist who became the first American woman elected to federal office in 1916.
Why we picked this
Rankin voted against both World Wars, won her seat before women could even vote nationwide, and has never had a proper biography — until now.
Lorissa Rinehart delivers the first comprehensive biography of Jeannette Rankin, a figure whose political courage still has no real parallel. In 1916, Rankin became the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress — four years before the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote nationally. She then voted against entering World War I, a decision that cost her re-election, and returned to Congress decades later only to cast the sole vote against entering World War II.
Rinehart’s biography examines how Rankin’s suffragist roots, pacifist convictions, and political instincts made her one of the most principled — and most punished — politicians in American history.
In conversation with Cynthia Richie Terrell at Politics and Prose at The Wharf. Free admission.