From the author of A Midwife's Tale; winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize for History; and The Age of Homespun--a revelatory; nuanced; and deeply intimate look at the world of early Mormon women whose seemingly ordinary lives belied an astonishingly revolutionary spirit; drive; and determination. A stunning and sure-to-be controversial book that pieces together; through more than two dozen nineteenth-century diaries; letters; albums; minute-books; and quilts left by first-generation Latter-day Saints; or Mormons; the never-before-told story of the earliest days of the women of Mormon "plural marriage;" whose right to vote in the state of Utah was given to them by a Mormon-dominated legislature as an outgrowth of polygamy in 1870; fifty years ahead of the vote nationally ratified by Congress; and who became political actors in spite of; or because of; their marital arrangements. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich; writing of this small group of Mormon women who've previously been seen as mere names and dates; has brilliantly reconstructed these textured; complex lives to give us a fulsome portrait of who these women were and of their "sex radicalism"--the idea that a woman should choose when and with whom to bear children.
#191880 in Books Broadway Books 2012-06-05 2012-06-05Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 7.99 x .95 x 5.16l; .75 #File Name: 0307452905432 pagesBroadway Books
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. An Interesting AssessmentBy Penelope JamesThe first half of this book is at times horrifying; fascinating; nauseating; and thoughtful. A mass murder is discovered in WWII Nazi-occupied Paris when life is cheap; young men on both sides are dying in battle; Jews are rounded up and packed into the Velodrome; their homes and possessions confiscated; the Gestapo interrogates and tortures at will; young men join the Maquis rather than be taken for forced labor in Germany. A Paris of shortages and excesses; of occupation and collaboration; and la Resistance. A city where Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus write books and produce plays.In a time such as WWII; murder shouldn't count for much. The police have other things on their hands. Except even in wartime; this murder stands out owing to the quantity and condition of decapitated heads and dismembered body parts found on the premises of a house owned by one Marcel Petiot.The second half of the book about the Petiot's trial had its moments; but this reader found it hard going and eventually scanned rather than read the last pages. The author wrote an epilog giving his opinion of what happened. He has done an impressive amount of research and this shows.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Long and Well ResearchedBy azuremouseThis is not an average true crime story. It is deeply frightening given the current political situation. Paris under the Nazis was hellish. We Americans need to remember that.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Too confusing.By CustomerLots of foreign words and no explanation. Main character was involved in so many crimes; I couldn't keep up. And in the end there was no explanation for all the body parts. It seemed the police chief as always 10 steps behind.
