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POSTPONED - Crystal Eastman: A Revolutionary Life

A century ago, Crystal Eastman was among the most conspicuous progressive reformers in America. Suffragist, labor lawyer, anti-militarist, feminist, internationalist and free-speech advocate, she was a multi-movement activist once called "the most dangerous woman in America." Eastman was a founder of the ACLU, the National Woman's Party and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; she drafted America's first serious Workers' Compensation Law and is credited with co-authoring the Equal Rights Amendment. Yet today, she is almost entirely lost to historical memory. In this first biography of a woman at the center of the social justice movements that defined the twentieth century, Aronson argues that Eastman's legacy became obscure because she attempted to bridge multiple movements as well as link them to the politics of private life, to home, family, and motherhood.

Date & Time

Monday
Dec. 16, 2019
4:00pm – 5:30pm ET

Location

6th Floor, Woodrow Wilson Center
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Overview

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Due to inclement weather in the forecast, Monday's session of the Washington History Seminar has been postponed. We hope to reschedule it soon.

A century ago, Crystal Eastman was among the most conspicuous progressive reformers in America.  Suffragist, labor lawyer, anti-militarist, feminist, internationalist and free-speech advocate, she was a multi-movement activist once called “the most dangerous woman in America.” Eastman was a founder of the ACLU, the National Woman’s Party and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; she drafted America’s first serious Workers’ Compensation Law and is credited with co-authoring the Equal Rights Amendment. Yet today, she is almost entirely lost to historical memory.  In this first biography of a woman at the center of the social justice movements that defined the twentieth century, Aronson argues that Eastman’s legacy became obscure because she attempted to bridge multiple movements as well as link them to the politics of private life, to home, family, and motherhood.  

Amy Aronson is an Associate Professor at Fordham University, in the Department of Communication and Media Studies and the American Studies Program.  Academically trained at Princeton and Columbia, she was also a magazine editor for several years and is an editor of the international quarterly Media History.  

The Washington History Seminar is co-chaired by Eric Arnesen (George Washington University) and Christian Ostermann (Woodrow Wilson Center) and is sponsored jointly by the National History Center of the American Historical Association and the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. It meets weekly during the academic year. The seminar thanks the Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest and the George Washington University History Department for their support.


Hosted By

History and Public Policy Program

The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs.  Read more

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