Rebel Cinderella

Name: Rebel Cinderella
Rating: 3.986 (18 reviews)
ISBN: 9781328866769

By Adam Hochschild

Publisher Description

From the best-selling author of King Leopold's Ghost and Spain in Our Hearts comes the astonishing but forgotten story of an immigrant sweatshop worker who married an heir to a great American fortune and became one of the most charismatic radical leaders of her time.

Rose Pastor arrived in New York City in 1903, a Jewish refugee from Russia who had worked in cigar factories since the age of eleven. Two years later, she captured headlines across the globe when she married James Graham Phelps Stokes, scion of one of the legendary 400 families of New York high society.

Together, this unusual couple joined the burgeoning Socialist Party and, over the next dozen years, moved among the liveliest group of activists and dreamers this country has ever seen. Their friends and houseguests included Emma Goldman, Big Bill Haywood, Eugene V. Debs, John Reed, Margaret Sanger, Jack London, and W.E.B. Du Bois.

Rose stirred audiences to tears and led strikes of restaurant waiters and garment workers. She campaigned alongside the country’s earliest feminists to publicly defy laws against distributing information about birth control, earning her notoriety as “one of the dangerous influences of the country” from President Woodrow Wilson. But in a way no one foresaw, her too-short life would end in the same abject poverty with which it began.

By a master of narrative nonfiction, Rebel Cinderella unearths the rich, overlooked life of a social justice campaigner who was truly ahead of her time.

Rebel Cinderella brings to life the passion and paradox of the Progressive Era:

An Improbable Marriage: The captivating true story of Rose Pastor, a Jewish immigrant from the Lower East Side, and James Graham Phelps Stokes, the aristocratic scion of one of New York’s wealthiest families.
The Dawn of the Progressive Era: A vivid portrait of early 20th-century America, where the glamour of high society clashed with the revolutionary fervor of socialism, feminism, and the fight for labor rights.
A Circle of Radicals: Step into a world of activists and dreamers, where friends and houseguests included legendary figures like Emma Goldman, Margaret Sanger, and Eugene V. Debs.
A Forgotten Feminist Icon: Discover the overlooked history of a woman who led strikes, defied birth control laws, and was branded "one of the dangerous influences of the country" by President Woodrow Wilson.

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Rebel Cinderella Reviews

3.5

Samantha M.

Created 6 months ago

stov

Created about 1 year ago

“The eventful life of Rose Pastor Stokes gives readers a look into a unique telling of the American dream. It recounts the hardships she faced growing up in 19th century Russia and eventually fleeing to the United States where she did not find the relief she had anticipated. Instead, she was forced to become a child laborer, climber her way up to become a writer, and later a wealthy activist. Though her wealth, resources, and many notable connections came about through her marriage to a millionaire turned activist, the book never lets this marriage rob Rose of her accomplishments, she truly worked hard to make a difference. Her words inspired notable figures and though not often acknowledged, played a key role in earning workers better rights. While mainly a biography of Rose herself, this book offers the untold stories of many others of the time that reflect many untold stories of today’s Americans. One part of the story I found particularly forewarning was Graham’s slow recession away from activism back into an aristocrat. This book does a wonderful job of showing the many dominoes that fell due to the First World War, and how the US had squashed worker’s rights movements in the interest of staying united as a country. Graham, who was shocked by poverty at a young age and spoke out against injustice, lost the empathy he gained in the interest of his own pride. I find that this happens to many young people who learn about the injustices of the world and participate in volunteer efforts and engage in their community. However, once they find a secure job and take on new priorities and responsibilities, they forgo speaking out for those who have not found their footing. The story of Rose also shows the many ways in which left wing movements cave in on themselves based on smaller differences and the choice to remain silent. WWI, wether intentionally or not, drove a wedge through worker solidarity, creating racial and political divisions that persist to this day. For anyone interested in a behind-the-scenes look into the labor movements of the late 1800s-early 1900s or the parallels often drawn by history, I do recommend reading this book.”

kathleen Sullivan

Created over 1 year ago

Spencer Ellsworth

Created over 1 year ago

“Adam Hochschild never misses in his histories of the Progressive Era. This one overlaps a bit with To End All Wars and some of his other work, but from a different biographical lens. Rosa Pastor Stokes has a genuine rags-to-riches change when she meets her extremely wealthy husband Graham in one of the community centers he sponsors. As rich as she is, she still leans hard left and is radical in her politics, and of course, those two worlds don't mesh well. He stops short of writing her thoughts or dialogue but he does speculate on how she might have felt or what she may have done in private. He perfectly shows the details about the cigar factory where she works, the mansion grounds of the Stokes, and all the trappings of this world. Hochschild made Rosa come alive, more than a lot of fictional characters I've read.”

N Dubs

Created over 1 year ago

“I’ll never get tired of reading about the heroes of the Progressive Era. I’ve always intuited a parallel between that time and the time in which I came of age — it was robber barons and railroads who were re-shaping the world then, while the yellow press manipulated the masses; now it’s Silicon Valley tech bros and the internet, while the disinformation industrial complex does their bidding. Highly recommend to anyone who cares about income inequality—we’re still fighting the same people (the rich) for our fair share and in my view we by and large lack the conviction and dedication of people like Stokes, Emma Goldman, Eugene Debs, and John Reed (all of whom are featured prominently here). I’ve read a great deal about Goldman but before reading this I knew very little about Rose Pastor Stokes. Paying homage to her work by spending time with the facts of her fascinating life feels like the least I could do. I learned a lot, but I will say that as a historian/history buff there was a lot of background information and general historical context that I personally could have done without; I’m quite well versed in the late 19th and 20th centuries. This was not a bad thing in terms of the book, though — all the extra expository writing makes this book more accessible, offers more mass appeal, and makes the implications of her work more impactful to readers who might only have cursory knowledge of the period and/or only a broad strokes grasp of things like the labor movement and WWI. This is basically an “intro to the labor movement and the progressive era” textbook that uses Rose Pastor Stokes’s life and work as a constant touchstone as it moves forward through time.”

About Adam Hochschild

ADAM HOCHSCHILD is the author of eleven books. King Leopold’s Ghost was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, as was To End All Wars. His Bury the Chains was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and PEN USA Literary Award. He lives in Berkeley, California.