Iowa History Book Club
Join the State Historical Society and Annals of Iowa editor, Andrew Klumpp, to explore Iowa’s past. Each quarter a book related to a different aspect of Iowa history will be selected and at the online book club meeting Klumpp will be joined by the book’s author or a current Iowa historian to discuss it. Book Club attendees are encouraged to submit questions during the meeting or at registration.
Participants are encouraged but not required to read the book prior to our meeting. Most books can be found from online booksellers or libraries. Registration is required for each event. View past programs here.
7 p.m. Thursday, November 30
Woman Suffrage and Citizenship in the Midwest, 1870-1920 by Sara Egge
Hosted by Andrew Klumpp and Sara Egge
Register
Examining grassroots activism offers a new approach that uncovers the sophisticated ways midwestern suffragists understood citizenship as an obligation. These suffragists, mostly Yankees who migrated from the Northeast after the Civil War, participated enthusiastically in settling the region and developing communal institutions such as libraries, schools, churches, and parks. Meanwhile, the efforts of the National American Women’s Suffrage Association did not always succeed in promoting the movement’s goals. Instead, it gained support among midwesterners only when local rural women claimed the right to vote on the basis of their well-established civic roles and public service.