Acknowledgments and Note on Sources
Part I: Belle Case La Follette
Introduction: "One of the Nation’s Greatest Women"
1. The Making of a Feminist
2. Seeking Balance: Marriage, Motherhood, and the Challenges of Progressive Womanhood
3. The Flowering of a Progressive: Journalist and Suffrage Leader
4. "The Successor to Harriet Beecher Stowe"
5. Champion of World Peace and Disarmament
6. Ensuring a Legacy
Part II: Documents
Biography
Nancy C. Unger is Professor of History at Santa Clara University. She is the author of Beyond Nature’s Housekeepers: American Women in Environmental History and Fighting Bob La Follette: The Righteous Reformer.
"In this fast-paced biography, Nancy Unger rescues from obscurity the remarkable political leader, Belle La Follette—progressive, feminist, anti-racist activist, and pacifist—who managed in the early twentieth century to balance engaged motherhood with tireless campaigning for social justice."
—Robyn Muncy, author of Relentless Reformer: Josephine Roche and Progressivism in Twentieth-Century America
"In her groundbreaking biography, Nancy Unger adds an essential chapter to the history of American feminism. With vivid prose and meticulous research, Unger peels away La Follette's self-effacing shell to expose a brilliant, visionary crusader for women's rights, racial equality, world peace, and progressive reform. Belle La Follette: Progressive Era Reformer complements Unger's excellent biography of Senator Bob La Follette, allowing Belle to emerge from the shadow of her famous husband as a leader and trailblazer in her own right."
—Michael Wolraich, author of Unreasonable Men: Theodore Roosevelt and the Republican Rebels Who Created Progressive Politics
"Unger, who has been a frequent speaker at the annual progressive gathering Fighting Bob Fest, has done a great service to the memory of Belle La Follette, who had as much to do with the course of Wisconsin progressivism as her famous husband and sons."
— Dave Zweifel, The Capital Times
