An author and historian will visit Athens Tuesday to discuss her biography of Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to the US House of Representatives and longtime Athens resident.
Rankin was born in 1880 in Montana and served in the US House of Representatives during both World Wars. Historian Lorissa Rinehart recently published Winning the Earthquake, the first biography on Rankin in the past 20 years. Rinehart will visit the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies at the University of Georgia on Tuesday, November 18th to discuss the book.
Rinehart used written and oral history archives at the Russell Library to complete her research.
“The research at the Russell Library is the crown jewel in my book. At the Russell Library is the collected oral histories conducted by Ted Harris, who was a graduate student studying in the 1960s,” she describes. “He went to her house and interviewed her for over 100 hours about her entire life. Because of that I was really able to bring Jeannette’s point of view and voice and her own experience into writing winning the earthquake.”
She says working with recorded oral history helped her discover more about Rankin’s political goals, which included opposing the two World Wars and expanding voting rights.
The book was made possible through the Jeannette Rankin Foundation, an Athens-based nonprofit that funds the education of women students. Karen Sterk is the CEO of the Foundation. She says that Rinehart’s use of oral history adds depth to her understanding of Rankin’s life.
“Lorissa’s book made her a complete 360 human being that I feel like I understand so much better,” she said. “Learning the context of the situation she was in, and what motivated her to do what—it reads like a novel.”
Rinehart will host the annual Jeannette Rankin Legacy Lecture on Tuesday, November 18th at 3 pm at the Russell Library on the campus of the University of Georgia.
Listen to the full interview between Lorissa Rinehart, Karen Sterk, and Emma Auer above.
