Winning the Earthquake by Lorissa Rinehart

Amidst all the horrors taking place in Minneapolis right now--I swear that every week and almost every day the terribleness changes location--I managed to finish reading a book. It was just the sort of book I needed right now.

When Winning the Earthquake: How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress (by Lorissa Rinehart) crossed my desk at work last month, I was quickly intrigued. I had never heard of Jeannette Rankin. In all the American history classes I took at an undergraduate, I don't recall ever hearing her name. This probably speaks to the way history was taught in the 1980s, and how women's stories were relegated to Women's Studies courses. It's a shame, because Jeannette Rankin was an incredible and inspiring person.

I want to share my impressions of the book and of Rankin's life right here on this blog because for one, it's fresh in my mind and secondly, I want anyone reading this blog to seek out this book either at a book shop or a library. With that in mind, some of this might be a bit disjointed--so I apologize in advance.

Jeannette Rankin (1880-1973) was born in rural Montana, nine years before Montana became a state. As a child, she heard stories of the American Civil War from ranch hands employed by her father, and for fun, she read the U.S. Constitution by candlelight. She also worked on the family's ranch and had many chores to attend to on a daily basis, despite the fact her father was well-to-do. Such was life on the frontier. Rankin saw how it was necessary for all people regardless of gender had to work together in order to survive. It was a lesson that stuck with her the rest of her life.

Rankin attended the University of Montana but had little interest in her studies. She was a person much more at ease working in the field and less so confined in a classroom. Despite this, she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology.

She began her professional career as a teacher, one of the few professions deemed acceptable for women at the turn of the 20th century. However, she was restless and soon found herself working with the poor in Seattle and then San Francisco. This work led her to her true calling, women's suffrage. She worked tirelessly to get women the right to vote, taking trains and cars throughout the West meeting with and speaking to average citizens on behalf of suffrage. I was struck by her indefatigable spirit and bravery in traveling to every dusty outpost, where she'd place her trusty soapbox on the most strategically located street corner and speak to anyone who'd listen. Her ability to connect with people was amazing, and what I wouldn't give to be able to hear one of her pro-suffrage speeches.

As a side note, Jeannette Rankin was an early motorist. She took to automobiles quickly and drove all across the United States multiple times her entire life.

Largely due to Rankin's efforts, Montana granted women's suffrage in 1914, and two years later she became the first woman elected to the United States Congress. A life-long pacifist, she voted against U.S. involvement in World War I. This torpedoed her political career for the next twenty years, but Rankin was a person who voted with her heart and accepted the consequences. 

I must also add, before I forget, that Rankin was a strong supporter of ranked choice voting and vehemently opposed the electoral college.

In the late 1930s, Rankin won a second term in the U.S. House of Representatives, just in time for the build-up to World War II. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, she once again had to vote for or against American involvement in a global war. This was a war that Rankin felt could have been avoided after the conclusion of World War I in 1918. Once again, she went with her conscience and voted NO. This was at ever greater personal cost than her vote in 1917. Her career in public office was destroyed, and she endured a horrible smear campaign. But to her credit, she never gave up. (It's important to add that after the declarations of war in 1917 and 1941, Rankin always voted YES in any vote for a bill or appropriation in support of the war efforts).

Rankin had long been fascinated by India, and she was a strong proponent of Indian independence, even meeting and speaking with Jawarharlal Nehru. She also championed the Civil Rights movement in the United States, marching with the likes of Coretta Scott King in 1968. And, naturally, she opposed the Vietnam War. 

Rankin died one month short of her 93rd birthday in 1973, having accomplished an incredible amount in that span. (Still, I think Rankin wished she could have accomplished more, and that more of her political ideals could have come to fruition).

Here are a few side bars to Rankin's life that I need to add:

She built her own house outside of Athens, Georgia in the early 1920s. It was a place humbly painted in whitewash that she christened The White House. When she wasn't criss-crossing the nation lobbying for one cause or another, she lived here and even created her own "summer camps" for children of sharecroppers.

Rankin would likely be the first to admit she wasn't perfect. As a younger person, she had some of the same prejudices towards Native Americans and Blacks that were common in her era. But she had a remarkable ability to see the errors in her ways and evolve over time.

As for where the title of the book, "Winning the Earthquake" comes from, I'll keep that a secret and make you read the book to find out.

I hope anyone reading this blog post will be inspired to pick up this book. In addition to being informative, it is also written in an engaging style.

If I think of anything else to write about Jeannette Rankin, I will do so in a future post.

I needed to read a book about someone who had courage in her convictions and fought the good fight despite the obstacles.