Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Blog Post #1 - Sources I've Located

     As I have mentioned in class I plan to do an analysis over the very militaristic Women’s Social and Political Union, referred to WSPU from this point on. So far, I have ordered several books from inter-library loan specifically through World Cat. These books include both primary sources and secondary sources. The first of these books is Speeches and Trials of the Militant Suffragettes: The Women's Social and Political Union, 1903-1918. This book written in 1999 is a secondary source, but includes primary sources within it. I hope to get general information from different women’s voices during this time. It will be extremely beneficial if I can find speeches from the specific women I am looking to analyze in more detail.

     The next source that I have located is a primary source from Christabel Pankhurst. It is her memoir named Unshackled: The Story of How We Won the Vote. Christabel Pankhurst came from the younger generation of Pankhursts and led the militaristic wing of the WSPU, especially when it heightened to its strongest right before World War I. Christabel offered a more violent and focused plan for the younger women to demand rights, instead of merely protesting for them. So for her to write a source it offers the younger generations’ view of the women’s movement, especially with the escalation in violence. Therefore, any information that I can gain from her thoughts, speeches and ideas will be the backbone of my paper. 

     There are a few other sources that I am waiting to receive from inter-library loan, these I do not know how well will relate to my topic specifically but I plan to search through them for information. Some of the titles of these works are The Suffragettes: Towards Emancipation, The Militants: Suffragette Activism, and Suffrage and the Pankhursts. The final source I ordered from inter-library loan is Extracts from the Speeches of Mrs. Pankhurst, George Lansbury, Annie Kenney & Sylvia Pankhurst, the Suffragette Prisoners who Were Convicted of Incitement to Violence. This sources sounds extremely promising because it offers speeches from multiple individuals, two of whom I am looking to study in depth. I am currently looking for more sources, especially any memoirs or other primary sources to give strong back story. I have a few in mind, and am in the process of ordering them, from inter-library loan, Mobius, SWAN, or checking Olin’s shelves for them.


-Jenn Kervian

2 comments:

  1. Jenn, are you planning on focusing over the issue on using violence as a form as protestation? What you have located so far sounds really interesting. I wonder how many women found Christabel Pankhurst's ideas on gaining rights for women more or less appealing than those who used passive protestation. Good luck on your work!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jenn, I also find this period of American history interesting. I don't know very much about the suffragette movement and I didn't know that there were militaristic groups of suffragettes, but I look forward to learning more from your blogs. Christabel Pankhurst sounds like an interesting person and great primary source for your research.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.