…Adam Hochschild writes movingly about an unlikely pair who also served as a potent symbol…Hochschild is a superb writer who makes light work of heavy subjects…In Rebel Cinderella, he brings his roving curiosity to bear on a figure whose public life coincided with the roiling decades of the early 20th century, with its grotesque economic disparity, vicious anti-Semitism, seething white nationalism and swelling anti-immigrant fervor. The time of upheaval that he writes about bears an unnerving resemblance to our own…Where information is scant or nonexistent, [Hochschild] deploys elegant workarounds that evoke a vivid sense of time and place…Hochschild's book shows us what a radical movement looked like from the inside, with all of its high-flown idealism and personal intrigues.

01/13/2020

Historian Hochschild (Lessons from a Dark Time and Other Essays) delivers a polished and accessible biography of early-20th-century radical Rose Pastor Stokes. A Russian-Jewish immigrant, Rose went to work in a Cleveland cigar factory in 1890 at age 11. The experience sparked her interest in writing about labor rights and socialist politics, and in 1903 she took a newspaper job in New York City, where she met and married James Graham Phelps Stokes, a millionaire involved in the progressive settlement house movement. The couple’s social circle included left-wing activists Eugene Debs, Margaret Sanger, and Upton Sinclair, and Hochschild provides captivating details about the 1909 N.Y.C. garment workers’ strike, the International Workers of the World, and the American Birth Control League. Though Graham stood by his wife when she was convicted in 1918 for violating the Espionage Act (she claimed the U.S. government served “profiteers” rather than “the people”), disagreements over the Soviet Union (Rose was a founding member of the Communist Party of America) and American involvement in WWI caused the marriage to unravel. The depth and richness of Hochschild’s portrait is somewhat compromised by his commitment to the reductive Cinderella trope, but few histories capture the era’s combustible mix of idealism and inequality better. Agent: Georges Borchardt, Georges Borchardt. (Mar.)

Although the stuff of fairy tale—penniless immigrant factory worker marries old-money millionaire, then uses her fortune and influence to fight for the laboring classes—the story Adam Hochschild tells in Rebel Cinderella is as taut and true as a well-tuned violin.  Rose Pastor Stokes comes alive as a woman of passionate conviction and rare imaginative power, restored by Hochschild to her rightful place in the history of America’s rise to world prominence in the first decades of the twentieth century.” ––Megan Marshall, author of Elizabeth Bishop   “Through the lens of a remarkable marriage, Adam Hochschild draws a vivid portrait of the Gilded Age – of immigrants, sweatshops, tenements, strikes, enclaves of patrician privilege, and a ‘citadel of socialism’ on a private island.  At the center of it all is Rose, whose extraordinary story ends as anything but a fairy tale.” ––Jean Strouse, author of Morgan: American Financier   “Adam Hochschild recounts the incredible story of Rose Pastor Stokes, a Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe who toiled in a cigar factory, met and married a rich socialite, and became an infamous socialist firebrand. The book is chock-full of fascinating characters and stories, with Stokes and her comrades often recounting their dramatic lives in their own words." ––Tyler Anbinder, author of City of Dreams “Lucidly written and painstakingly researched, this is a joy to read, cementing Pastor in her rightful place with other progressive figures of the time.” ––Library Journal, starred review “Hochschild’s captivating and fast-paced biography is a true delight and an excellent addition to women’s history shelves.” —Booklist “Polished and accessible . . . few histories capture the era’s combustible mix of idealism and inequality better.” ––Publishers Weekly  “Adam Hochschild writes movingly about an unlikely pair who also served as a potent symbol . . . Hochschild is a superb writer who makes light work of heavy subjects . . . Where information is scant or nonexistent, he deploys elegant workarounds that evoke a vivid sense of time and place . . . Hochschild’s book shows us what a radical movement looked like from the inside, with all of its high-flown idealism and personal intrigues. Whatever protections we take for granted once seemed unfathomable before they became real.” ––New York Times "This vibrant biography portrays the riveting charisma of the socialist activist Rose Pastor Stokes . . . Hochschild captures the improbability and idealism of both Pastor Stokes and her era, a time when it seemed that stark divisions of class, race, and gender might be erased, in an instant, by love." ––The New Yorker “Adam Hochschild is among the most readable of historians . . . Hochschild has done a brilliant job of bringing [the Stokes’ marriage] to life and in doing so, illuminating the complex social and economic history of a generation whose rabble-rousers and dreamers bequeathed us such reforms as Social Security, Medicare, child labor laws and the eight-hour day.” ––Associated Press “A thrilling book. Adam Hochschild is a wonderful writer with a social conscience.” ––Bill Goldstein, Weekend Today in New York, WNBC-TV "Hochschild's historical —

★ 12/01/2019

With his latest work, Hochschild (King Leopold's Ghost) brings us the life of Rose Pastor Stokes (1879–1933). A Russian Jew, Pastor immigrated to the United States as a child with her destitute family. She started working in cigar factories at 11, but her love of poetry eventually led to a career writing a women's column for a Yiddish newspaper in New York. On assignment to interview Graham Phelps Stokes, a millionaire dabbling in social work at settlement homes, she fell in love and the two quickly married, stunning the nation. The firestorm of publicity followed the couple for years as they became involved in socialism and progressive causes. Pastor was a leading speaker and writer who raised significant funds and attention to causes such as immigrant poverty, labor unions, birth control, and women's suffrage. During World War I, Graham's politics veered to the right and the couple eventually divorced. Pastor's career ended, and she died of cancer in poverty. VERDICT Lucidly written and painstakingly researched, this is a joy to read, cementing Pastor in her rightful place with other progressive figures of the time.—Kate Stewart, Arizona Historical Soc., Tucson

Narrator Lisa Flanagan uses her considerable skills to become Rose Pastor, a Russian-Jewish immigrant who landed first in London; then in Cleveland, as a sweatshop cigar roller; and finally, in 1903, in New York City. While involved with the Settlement House movement and the new Socialist Party, Pastor met and married James Graham Phelps Stokes, heir to one of the blue blood fortunes of the time. Flanagan uses soft, emotional tones for the voice of Rose Pastor Stokes, shifts to a steady reading of the narrative and footnotes, tackles Yiddish terms, and uses deeper tones for the men’s voices. Flanagan breathes life into this charismatic, radical leader, narrating her rise from rags to riches, and back to rags, along with details of her interactions with other party members and well-known twentieth-century social reformers. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Narrator Lisa Flanagan uses her considerable skills to become Rose Pastor, a Russian-Jewish immigrant who landed first in London; then in Cleveland, as a sweatshop cigar roller; and finally, in 1903, in New York City. While involved with the Settlement House movement and the new Socialist Party, Pastor met and married James Graham Phelps Stokes, heir to one of the blue blood fortunes of the time. Flanagan uses soft, emotional tones for the voice of Rose Pastor Stokes, shifts to a steady reading of the narrative and footnotes, tackles Yiddish terms, and uses deeper tones for the men’s voices. Flanagan breathes life into this charismatic, radical leader, narrating her rise from rags to riches, and back to rags, along with details of her interactions with other party members and well-known twentieth-century social reformers. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine