Other Powers

This book was first recommended to me by a Church of Christ pastor who was into history. He said,"You've got to read this book! You'll love it!" He was right! As a Spiritualist, I had heard of Victoria Woodhull, but that was about it. This is a complete, researched biography that goes beyond biography. It gives a picture of an age of searching, inquiry and intellectual activity that most Americans are not aware of. Victoria Woodhull is a fascinating character, emerging from very poor beginnings to become involved in the feminist movement, being a spiritual medium, a part-time hooker and eventually becoming involved in politics. She ends up being in a very conventional marriage to an Englishman and leading a very respectable life. No, she never won the presidency, but the reader will learn a lot about the cultural development of America in the 19th century from reading this book.

This is a terrific read -- fast paced, racy, with an unbelievable cast of actual historical characters dealing with issues like free love and marriage. Meticulously researched, it provides a more complete picture of the lives of both ordinary and leading women and the strictures of 19th century polite and not-so-polite society than most historical books I've read. I have found it very difficult to put down. It has provided me with a picture of the 1800's, women's lives and the struggle for women's rights that I was very ignorant about before. I wasn't really interested in the topic of women's issues until I started to read this book, but it has opened my eyes to how far we have come, where some of our society's problems are rooted, and how far we have to go.

I picked this book after an hour of looking online at different books. I needed a book for a class book report. WOW did I pick a winner. The authors decade of research definitely proves worthy. I felt at times I was walking with Victoria Woodhull. This book really gets into your head. The way the author ties everyones lives together with effortless fluidity will take your breath away. All the characters cover the entire spectrum of the human spirit in a way that will make you want to read this book over and over until you have every morsel memorized.

What an absolute joy of a book. Goldsmith seems to have found the perfect centerof the femininist storm in Victoria Woodhull, an outspoken advocate of women's rights, free love, and spiritualism. The telling of her tale (and this book reads like a plotted novel) involves the inclusion of tales and talk from Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Henry Ward Beecher, President Ulysses S. Grant, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, and cameo appearances from a host of others (including the prudish New York City "in"fighter, Anthony Comstock). Much of the telling involves the infamous Tilton-Beecher scandal, a story whose recitation touches on much of the post-Civil War atmosphere of spiritualism,financial skullduggery, the new religious practices of revised Calvinism, and, of course, equal rights for women. This is a fascinating read and wonderfully written. You don't need to be a history buff to pick this up.

Bravo and hats off to Ms. Goldsmith for her exhaustive research into 19th century America from a woman's perspective. She brilliantly weaves the sordid web of characters around perhaps the most controversial, Victoria Woodhull. The most disturbing aspect of this work is that it recounts real events and paints a tragic picture of women as nothing more than mere property of men. Though women were the oppressed sex, Goldsmith reveals that in the arenas of politics, blackmail, controversy, and love men and women were every bit equals. The 19th century of Woodhull, Stanton, Anthony, Beecher, and Tilton (to name just a few) was as scandalous, political, and money-driven as this century where names like Lewinsky, Jones, Tripp, Clinton, and Starr dominate the headlines. A riveting ride through a very scandalous, salacious period in our history, this book should be required reading for any 19th century American history class.