| Book Reviews | The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 130.2

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the Pennsylvania Magazine of History online. About 240 words from this article are provided below; about 446 words remain.

If you are an individual member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, you can:: • join here.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Pennsylvania Magazine of History.
Instititutions can:: • Join the Society or subscribe to the journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Reviews | The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 130.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Reviews

Jane Grey Swisshelm: An Unconventional Life, 1815–1884. By Sylvia D. Hoffert. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. 255p. Illustrations, notes, note on primary sources, index. $39.95.)

In her new biography of Jane Grey Swisshelm, historian Sylvia D. Hoffert has matched her subject's unusual life with an unconventional biography. Despite Swisshelm's reputation as one of the most influential and controversial women of the mid-nineteenth century, few historians have attempted to unravel the apparent contradictions in the behavior of this caustic, and to some observers, unlikable journalist and reformer. Other than her published autobiography and a collection of edited letters, there are no other full-length biographies. Both "ashamed and proud" of Swisshelm, local historians of Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, noted in 1940 that, "All her life she has been creating disturbances and doing 'queer' things" (p. 161). As editor of the Pittsburg Saturday Visiter (1847–54), Swisshelm was renowned for her trenchant political commentary and outspoken support for abolition and women's rights. Her words were so potent in the partisan arena of frontier Minnesota that political enemies destroyed her press. In recent years, Swisshelm's reputation has been largely shaped by her contentious reform work. While she maintained great sympathy for the enslaved, she demanded the removal or extermination of the Dakota from Minnesota. Repeatedly defining herself as an outsider, she failed to cooperate with leaders of the woman's rights movement and publicly criticized their ideologies and tactics.

. . .

There are about 446 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.