The Myth of Seneca Falls

The story of how the women's rights movement began at the Seneca Falls convention of 1848 is a cherished American myth. In her provocative new history, Lisa Tetrault demonstrates that Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and their peers gradually created and popularized this origins story during the second half of the nineteenth century in response to internal movement dynamics as well as the racial politics of memory after the Civil War.