The Icon and the Idealist
Margaret Sanger, Mary Ware Dennett, and the Rivalry That Brought Birth Control to America
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2.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
SHORTLISTED FOR THE PLUTARCH AWARD FOR BEST BIOGRAPHY
WINNER OF THE ASJA AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHY/HISTORY
A riveting history about the little-known rivalry between Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett that profoundly shaped reproductive rights in America
In the 1910s, as the birth control movement was born, two leaders emerged: Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett. While Sanger would go on to found Planned Parenthood, Dennett’s name has largely faded from public knowledge. Each held a radically different vision for what reproductive autonomy and birth control access should look like in America.
Few are aware of the fierce personal and political rivalry that played out between Sanger and Dennett over decades—a battle that had a profound impact on the lives of American women. Meticulously researched and vividly drawn, The Icon and the Idealist reveals how and why these two women came to activism, the origins of the clash between them, and the ways in which their missteps and breakthroughs have reverberated across American society for generations.
With deep archival scope and rigorous execution, Stephanie Gorton weaves together a personal narrative of two fascinating women and the political history of a country rocked by changing social norms, the Depression, and a fervor for eugenics. Refusing to shy away from the enmeshed struggles of race, class, and gender, Gorton has made a sweeping examination of every force that has come in the way of women’s reproductive freedom.
Brimming with insight and compelling portraits of women’s struggles throughout the twentieth century, The Icon and the Idealist is a comprehensive history of a radical cultural movement.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This doubleheader biography recounts the activism of two women who were pioneers in the fight for birth control in the United States—but don’t assume they were allies. The Icon and the Idealist explores the lives of Mary Dennett, convicted for distributing sex ed pamphlets, and Margaret Sanger, the Planned Parenthood founder now known for her darker support of the discredited pseudoscience of eugenics. The focus is on the intense feud between the two over the use of aggressive political tactics. Author Stephanie Gorton artfully contrasts the lives and attitudes of these women, from boisterous Sanger to understated Dennett, illustrating the internal conflicts in this feminist movement with flair. More than just a history text, Gorton’s incredibly thorough research reminds us that the target of these early 1900s women—the pro-chastity Comstock Act—is still a looming threat to women’s rights today. If you’re a fan of deep cuts from feminist history or just fascinated by the never-ending battle for reproductive rights, pick up The Icon and the Idealist.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this brilliant account, journalist Gorton (Citizen Reporters) explores the early 20th-century feud between the high-profile, charismatic Margaret Sanger and the earnest, "unyielding" Mary Ware Dennett, rival feminists who championed two different versions of birth control access. Starting out as colleagues in the Voluntary Parent League, the two came to loggerheads over the course of the 1920s, as Sanger favored (as more realistically achievable) a system controlled by the medical establishment, with doctors prescribing contraceptives to married women, while Dennett—an ideological purist who wanted no compromise with conservatives—pushed for widespread contraceptive access unencumbered by gatekeepers. Sanger's vision won out, while Dennett was pushed out of the mainstream women's movement. But Gorton, in a fine-grained and propulsive examination of the rivals' careers, depicts their antagonism as foundational to modern feminism: Sanger copied Dennett's innovative tactic of direct, intensive one-on-one lobbying of legislators; Dennett's ideological victories on behalf of free speech around sex (especially her triumph in a court case involving her production of a sex education manual for children) became a bedrock of the reproductive rights movement; and Sanger was able to succeed in her early incrementalist goals because of how her competition with Dennett fueled her ambitions. By turns analytical and dishy (both women were involved in free love scandals), this captivates.
