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The Secret History of Wonder Woman Jill Lepore 9780385354042 Books

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The Secret History of Wonder Woman Jill Lepore 9780385354042 Books

This book unearths the social influences behind the development of Wonder Woman, and brings to light the unusual (some would say perverse) family that created her during their campaign to make America a better, more equal place for women. The author is an academic first and foremost, and it is feminist history and cultural studies oriented, so it may irritate or lose the interest of those who don't enjoy that approach. But for all the footnotes (ever beloved by humanities scholars), it is an easy and engaging read and a compelling story about the complex women behind Wonder Woman.


Tags : The Secret History of Wonder Woman [Jill Lepore] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. A riveting work of historical detection revealing that the origin of one of the world’s most iconic superheroes hides within it a fascinating family story—and a crucial history of twentieth-century feminism Wonder Woman,Jill Lepore,The Secret History of Wonder Woman,Knopf,0385354045,Feminism & Feminist Theory,United States - 20th Century,Comic books, strips, etc.;United States.,Feminism;United States;History.,Superhero comic books, strips, etc.,Biography & Autobiography Literary,FEMINISM,GENERAL,GRAPHIC LITERATURE,General Adult,History,History United States 20th Century,Non-Fiction,Social Science,Social Science Feminism & Feminist Theory,Sociology,Superhero comic books, strips, etc,United States,Women's Studies,Wonder Woman (Fictitious character)

The Secret History of Wonder Woman Jill Lepore 9780385354042 Books Reviews

WOW - this is one of those long complicated tales that shows just how convoluted humans can be.

The link between the suffragettes of early 1900s, the Birth Control movement and the Wonder Woman of the 1940's is just amazing. Lepore does the subject justice and I'm amazed at how she teased some of these 'skeletons' into the light.

I don't give out a lot of 5 Stars, but this book earned them.
Here is the internal dialog I had going at one point while reading this book.

Me "So the inventor of Wonder Woman was a psychology PhD who also invented the first lie detector."

Also me "Neat."

Me "Get this, he was also a pretty hardcore first-wave feminist and based a lot of Wonder Woman's stories and characteristics on Margaret Sanger, the birth-control pioneer."

Also me "That's pretty cool."

Me "He also lived with three women, had children with two of them, and balanced this unusual lifestyle fairly gracefully in way that his wife, Halloway, could fulfill her ambition to maintain a full-time job, while his mistress, Olive Bynre, could do what she wanted and raise the kids, while the third woman, Hurston, could come and go as she pleased. I should mention that Byrne wore thick silver bracelets, while Hurston and he were really into bondage."

Also me "That's pretty crazy, I mean especially for the early twentieth century..."

Me "You're still not getting it kick-ass first-wave feminist sensibilities, thick silver bracelets, bondage, and making people tell the truth."

Also me "Oh God, that's Wonder Woman's whole gig, truth-telling lasso and all. Wow."

So if after that little exchange you find yourself intrigued instead of bored, check this book out. It really is more of a biography of William Moulton Marston (WW's creator) than of the character, but it really is pretty interesting and naturally puts Wonder Woman's development into a more complete context. And the detailed research that went into digging this story out of DECADES of deliberate obfuscation is simply amazing. The author, Jill Lepore, deserves a round of applause for finding this amazing story and bringing it to the public in such an engaging way. This book integrates the history of feminism, comic books, psychology, social shifts in both sexuality and gender, and in the process gives us a nuanced look at some truly interesting people.

Martson was a competent but spotlight-loving academic who couldn't resist sabotaging his own successes (in that way he is similar to his predecessor, The wizard from Vienna Franz Anton Mesmer). Halloway, the wife and rock of the relationship(s) who wanted to give life her best as a working woman but still be able to raise a family. Byrne, the (seduced) graduate student who worked on much of WMM's projects anonymously and raised the Marston family to compensate for her own lonely childhood. And there are many others.

Suffice to say - this is an engaging read for anyone interested in the history of feminism, comics, and (naturally) Wonder Woman herself.
This is a wonderful hidden history that you don't need to know -- but it's a lot more fun to know. This book also offers a important insight to the early feminists, their radicalism, their blind spots, and their surprisingly current understanding of the issues that women still face. This is quite different than the received wisdom about this era in that first wave feminism didn't neatly end with suffrage, nor did these women feel at all satisfied that their demands had been met by society. I have given 4 stars instead of 5 because of the following (1) For all the wonderful, granular detail provided about the real characters involved and their world, as well as how their lives were reflected in the pages of Wonder Woman comics, there is strangely little information about the actual Wonder Woman story. Just a chapter or so telling summarizing Wonder Woman's own origin story and a timeline of events in her fictional life would have made a huge difference in my understanding. (2) While Jill Lepore is a talented writer, clearly reveling in the fun of her histories, her prose can sometimes be maddeningly convoluted and ambiguous -- as if she is moving a bit too quickly. Her research and excellent writer's voice deserve a better editing job. Otherwise, there are passages that often feel like first drafts, and the story loses out as a result.
This book unearths the social influences behind the development of Wonder Woman, and brings to light the unusual (some would say perverse) family that created her during their campaign to make America a better, more equal place for women. The author is an academic first and foremost, and it is feminist history and cultural studies oriented, so it may irritate or lose the interest of those who don't enjoy that approach. But for all the footnotes (ever beloved by humanities scholars), it is an easy and engaging read and a compelling story about the complex women behind Wonder Woman.