This episode explores Winning the Earthquake: How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress by historian Lorissa Rinehart. We trace Jeannette Rankin's path from a Montana ranch to Congress, her lonely votes against two world wars, and her decades of quiet work for peace on a small farm near Athens, Georgia. Along the way, you hear how this new biography brings to life a woman whose courage still speaks to your moment.

Winning the Earthquake: How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress

Credit: St. Martin's Press

 

Jeannette Rankin is often a trivia question but rarely treated as a fully drawn character. In this conversation, we introduce you to her through Winning the Earthquake, Lorissa Rinehart's new biography of the first woman elected to Congress. Born on a Montana ranch, Rankin grew up in a world where everyone did every job, which helped her move easily across gender lines and talk with almost anyone. From teaching to social work in Boston and San Francisco, she carried what she saw in poor neighborhoods into a fierce commitment to women's suffrage and grassroots democracy.

You hear how Rankin helped win the vote for women in Montana in 1914, then ran for Congress in 1916 on a progressive and firmly antiwar platform. We talk about her belief that you cannot expand democracy or protect working people if you are sending them to war, the way she framed pacifism as part of a broader reform vision, and the famous line that gives this book its title, that you can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake. From there, we walk through her historic votes against the United States' entry into both World War One and World War Two, the backlash from suffrage leaders and colleagues, and how those conscience votes cost her her place in national politics even as they defined her legacy.

The episode also brings out Rankin's long and surprising connection to Georgia. After her first term in Congress, she moved to a farm outside Athens, helped found peace organizations in the state, lobbied for electoral reforms, and later taught at Brenau University in Gainesville, all while working for national and international peace groups. Decades later, during the Vietnam era, she marched with Coretta Scott King, inspired younger activists, and helped create the Jeannette Rankin Foundation, which still funds scholarships for women over 35 in financial need. We close by asking what Rankin might say to you now and by exploring why this vivid biography, with its strong sense of place, sound, and emotion, gives her story the Narrative Edge for readers today.