Short nonfiction texts offer an excellent starting point for research. Their brief length allows you to gather essential information quickly, while the combination of engaging prose and striking illustrations provides an accessible introduction to your topic. Additionally, the backmatter - including authors' notes, timelines, and suggested readings - gives you valuable leads for continuing your research in greater depth.
How Women Won the Vote tells
the dramatic story of the 1913 Women's March in Washington, DC, and the fight for women's right to vote. You'll follow suffragists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, who met in London and became fierce leaders of the movement. Bartoletti shows how these brave women endured imprisonment, hunger strikes, and public criticism to secure voting rights for American women in 1920.
The book mixes photographs with illustrations bringing this important Progressive Era reform to life. Detailed back matter includes an author's note, time line, and a bibliography for additional research.
Available at the Scarsdale Public Library
Ida B. Wells: Let the Truth Be Told traces Ida B. Wells's life from her birth into slavery in 1862 through her career as a journalist and activist. The book covers her fight against lynching, her work for civil rights and women's suffrage. Wells's own words from her autobiography are highlighted in bold throughout the text.
This source is valuable for understanding an important but sometimes overlooked figure in the Progressive Era. The inclusion of Wells's actual words gives readers direct access to her voice and convictions.
This book may simplify some of complex political and social issues Wells confronted. As you continue to research, your understanding of this issues will deepen.
Available at the SMS Library
Jacob Riis's Camera explores how Danish immigrant Jacob Riis used the newly invented flash photography to document the horrific living conditions in New York City's tenement buildings during the late 1800s. The book follows Riis from his experience with poverty in Denmark and as an unhoused immigrant in America to his groundbreaking work as a photojournalist who exposed social injustices and inspired reform.
This source is excellent for understanding how technology and media can drive social reform during the Progressive Era.
This book may simplify some of complex political and social issues. As you continue to research, your understanding of this issues will deepen.
Available through the Westchester Library System
The Camping Trip that Chaged America tells the story of the 1903 camping trip between President Theodore Roosevelt and naturalist John Muir in Yosemite Valley. The fictionalized account shows how their four-day adventure led to a friendship and mutual respect that resulted in Roosevelt establishing 18 new national monuments and doubling the number of national parks.
This source effectively shows how personal relationships can drive political change. It makes conservation history accessible and engaging through Gerstein's breathtaking illustrations. The book connects individual action to large-scale environmental reform, demonstrating Roosevelt's progressive conservation policies in action. The author's note and references to archival sources (Yosemite Research Library, John Muir National Site) provide credible leads for deeper research.
This is a fictionalized account, which means some dialogue and details are imagined rather than documented. Additional research is a must.
Available at the Scarsdale Public Library
Fight of the Century frames the five-year battle for women's suffrage as a boxing match between activist Alice Paul and President Woodrow Wilson. The narrative follows Paul's strategic campaign to win public support and convince the president to back the 19th Amendment.
The boxing match metaphor makes a complex political struggle engaging and accessible. The substantial backmatter - including an author's note, timeline, and extensive bibliography - provides excellent jumping-off points for deeper research into the suffrage movement.
As with researching any topic, additional sources are needed for a complete understanding.
Available at the Scarsdale Public Library
Dangerous Jane covers Jane Addams's life from her difficult childhood - losing her mother as a toddler and suffering from spinal tuberculosis - through her creation of Hull House in Chicago and her peace activism during and after World War I. The book explains how Addams earned the title "most dangerous woman in America" from the FBI for her humanitarian work.
This source provides a more complete picture of Addams than typical accounts that focus only on Hull House, making it valuable for understanding the breadth of her reform work. The timeline and detailed afterword offer solid foundations for further research on settlement houses, women's reform movements, and peace activism.
AAs with researching any topic, additional sources are needed for a complete understanding.
Available at the Scarsdale Public Library
