Ruby Sisson Library

When an unkempt woman who is barely able to speak arrives in his office, London attorney Alexander Armstrong is stunned to discover that she is Irene Baindor, a woman who holds the key to solving a mystery that has plagued him for twenty-six years.

Distraught over the deaths of her husband and son in a suicide bombing at a London soccer match, a woman writes a letter to Osama bin Laden to persuade him to abandon his terror campaign.

"Her rallying cry was famous: "Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living." Mother Jones (1837-1930) was a celebrated organizer and agitator, the very soul of protest movements in the early twentieth century. At coal strikes, steel strikes, railroad, textile, and brewery strikes, Mother Jones was always there, stirring the workers to action and enraging the powerful." "When Mary Jones began her career as a "hell-raiser," as she put it, she...

Explores tattoo origins, women's labor history, circus life and the stories of several women from the late 19th century through the early 20th century who covered their bodies with tattoos and traveled the country, performing nearly nude for all to see. Includes information on Irene Woodward, Nora Hildebrandt, Artoria Gibbons, Betty Broadbent, Jean Furella Carroll, Ethel Martin, Emma de Burgh and others. Also includes some modern performers.

Features an interview with historian Elliott Gorn (in color). In mostly black and white still photographs and a segment of motion picture footage of Mother Jones at age "100", her story recalls the terrible conditions and labor oppression that motivated her to travel the country, mobilizing thousands of workers to fight for a living wage

Common Sense and a Little Fire traces the personal and public lives of four immigrant women activists who left a lasting imprint on American politics. Though they have rarely had more than cameo appearances in previous histories, Rose Schneiderman, Fannia Cohn, Clara Lemlich Shavelson, and Pauline Newman played important roles in the emergence of organized labor, the New Deal welfare state, adult education, and the modern women's movement. All four...

Selma, a Czechoslovakian immigrant, is a single mother working in a factory in rural America circa 1964. She is also afflicted by a hereditary disease, which will cost her her sight. Determined to protect her 10-year-old son from the same fate, Selma is saving her money to get him an operation. In the evenings, Selma escapes by rehearsing for a production of The Sound of Music with her best friend. When a neighbor betrays her trust, Selma's life spirals...

"The Last of Her Kind introduces two women who meet as freshmen on the Barnard campus in 1968. Georgette George does not know what to make of her brilliant, idealistic roommate, Ann Drayton, and her obsessive disdain for the ruling class into which she was born. She is mortified by Ann's romanticization of the underprivileged class, which Georgette herself is hoping college will enable her to escape. After the violent fight that ends their friendship,...