In Philipp Blom's wonderful book, The Vertigo Years: Europe, 1900-1914, I came across a legendary photograph of Lililan Lenton. She was a British suffragette of some renown, with an extraordinary story (I won't offer any scene-spoilers here). The photograph was taken while she was imprisoned. Under surveillance, bereft of any of hair or clothing styles of the time to distract us, we see a striking young woman who looks as though she stepped out of history straight into our time. This piqued my curiosity and led me to Rebel Girls.
That curiosity was rewarded. Rebel Girls is a fine book, painstakingly researched and well-informed about the Suffragettes. Lenton is but one of an amazing group.
If there is one, albeit slight, blemish to the book, it's the author's occasional tendency to attempt to explicitly draw her subjects into our time and way of thinking, rather than letting them express themselves without such distraction. That said, it's not a major problem in my mind--and, to be sure,it's a temptation which snares any number of historical writers today.
The Rebel Girls story is so important and interesting that it should be able to stand on its own, speaking to people far into the future.