The Life and Turbulent Times of Clara Dorothea Rackham: Suffragist, Socialist, and Social Reformer

Clara Dorothea Rackham, a prominent figure in suffrage, labor, co-operative, peace, and adult education movements, is the subject of this first critical study. Rackham's unpublished speeches, letters, diaries, and contemporary media coverage are used to reassess her as a politician who changed the face of Cambridge and a public intellectual who advocated for a fair, just, and equal society. Her ideals, intellectual formation, and priorities as a Labour Party politician are explored, making this book of interest to historians and students of gender, history, and womens lives.

Format: Hardback
Length: 190 pages
Publication date: 18 October 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Clara Dorothea Rackham, née Tabor (1875-1966), was a towering figure in the suffrage, labor, cooperative, peace, and adult education movements, but is virtually forgotten today. This clearly written and engaging study is based on unpublished primary sources, including Rackham's unpublished speeches, letters, diaries, and contemporary media coverage of her work in local and national archives. It reassesses this remarkable woman not only as a politician who changed the face of Cambridge, the university city in which she lived and worked, but also as a public intellectual whose feminist advocacy of a fair, just, and equal society helped pave the way to Britain's postwar settlement and Welfare State. Rackham came to prominence as Chairman of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, as a government factory inspector, and championing the rights of unemployed women in the 1930s. An early broadcaster on BBC radio, and among the first women appointed magistrates and councillors, her name became synonymous with enlightened local government. The transformation of women's lives in Victorian and twentieth-century Britain is crucial to understanding Rackham's ideals, intellectual formation, and priorities as a Labor Party politician.

This book will be of interest to historians and students of gender, history, and women's lives.

Weight: 544g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367373924