The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote

Nashville, August 1920. The Nineteenth Amendment, which would give women across the country the vote, needs thirty-six states to become law. Thirty-five have ratified. Tennessee is the last state still undecided, and the outcome there will settle whether the amendment stands or fails.

The book is narrative non-fiction history. It takes the final six weeks of a campaign that had run for seven decades and follows them in Nashville. The city fills with suffragists and political leaders on one side and the forces opposed to women's suffrage on the other. Both camps arrive to make a last stand, and the city becomes a frenzied battleground.

Elaine Weiss works from the legal fights and political maneuvering behind the ratification. She brings in well-known suffragists and political figures who shaped the result. Narrowing the long struggle to one state and one short stretch of time gives the account the tension of a single contest with a deadline.

It suits readers of American political history, or anyone curious about how the vote for women was finally secured. The pace is brisk and the focus tight, with the whole movement's history converging on a single decision.