The Secret History of Wonder Woman

The Secret History of Wonder Woman

A riveting work of historical detection revealing that the origin of one of the worldâ‚¬s most iconic superheroes hides within it a fascinating family storyâ‚¬"and a crucial history of twentieth-century feminism

Wonder Woman, created in 1941, is the most popular female superhero of all time. Aside from Superman and Batman, no superhero has lasted as long or commanded so vast and wildly passionate a following. Like every other superhero, Wonder Woman has a secret identity. Unlike every other superhero, she has also has a secret history.

Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore has uncovered an astonishing trove of documents, including the never-before-seen private papers of William Moulton Marston, Wonder Womanâ‚¬s creator. Beginning in his undergraduate years at Harvard, Marston was influenced by early suffragists and feminists, starting with Emmeline Pankhurst, who was banned from speaking on campus in 1911, when Marston was a freshman. In the 1920s, Marston and his wife, Sadie Elizabeth Holloway, brought into their home Olive Byrne, the niece of Margaret Sanger, one of the most influential feminists of the twentieth century. The Marston family story is a tale of drama, intrigue, and irony. In the 1930s, Marston and Byrne wrote a regular column for Family Circle celebrating conventional family life, even as they themselves pursued lives of extraordinary nonconformity. Marston, internationally known as an expert on truthâ‚¬"he invented the lie detector testâ‚¬"lived a life of secrets, only to spill them on the pages of Wonder Woman.

The Secret History of Wonder Woman is a tour de force of intellectual and cultural history. Wonder Woman, Lepore argues, is the missing link in the history of the struggle for womenâ‚¬s rightsâ‚¬"a chain of events that begins with the womenâ‚¬s suffrage campaigns of the early 1900s and ends with the troubled place of feminism a century later.
Country USA
Brand Knopf
Manufacturer Knopf
Binding Hardcover
ReleaseDate 2014-10-28
UnitCount 1
Format Deckle Edge
EANs 9780385354042

Country	USA
Brand	Knopf
Manufacturer	Knopf
Binding	Hardcover
ReleaseDate	2014-10-28
UnitCount	1
Format	Deckle Edge
EANs	9780385354042

The Secret History of Wonder Woman

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