How the Vote Was Won: Woman Suffrage in the Western United States, 1868-1914

How the Vote Was Won: Woman Suffrage in the Western United States, 1868-1914. By Rebecca J. Mead. (New York: New York University Press, 2004. Pp. x, 273. Illustrations, index. Cloth, $42.00).

Western states and territories, beginning with Wyoming in 1869, pioneered in establishing woman suffrage while the East lagged well behind. That is a familiar story, but scholars have typically approached the subject only piecemeal and offered unconvincing explanations of why wcmen gained the ballot more quickly in the West than in the East. Rebecca Mead's Hoiv the Vote Was Won is the first attempt at a comprehensive history of the woman suffrage movement in the West and a coherent explanation of its success and its significance for the national movement.

Mead emphasizes the importance of understanding the political context of Western suffrage campaigns. Three distinct phases of suffrage success corresponded with periods of political fluidity and reform. The experimental nature of territorial and statehood politics, coinciding with Reconstruction debates, kept voting rights issues in the public arena and led to early successes in Wyoming and in Utah. The political challenges of Populism generated...