Cindy Peyser Safronoff

discusses

Crossing Swords:
Mary Baker Eddy vs. Victoria Claflin Woodhull and the Battle for the Soul of Marriage

This event includes a book signing

Date

Aug
2
Tuesday
August 2, 2016
7:00 PM ET

Location

Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

Tickets

This event is free; no tickets are required.

Harvard Book Store welcomes historian CINDY SAFRONOFF for a discussion of her book Crossing Swords: Mary Baker Eddy vs. Victoria Claflin Woodhull and the Battle for the Soul of Marriage.

About Crossing Swords

A woman is running for US President! Socialism is gaining ground in America, and a campaign is underway to redefine marriage, causing a culture war between Christian leaders and feminists. It is 1872, and Victoria Woodhull is leading the radical faction of the women's rights movement with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. On the other end of the spectrum, more philosophically aligned with Lucy Stone and Mary Livermore, a movement that would put women into the pulpit worldwide is being launched by Mary Baker Eddy, who staunchly defends the Christian view of the sanctity of marriage.

In the decade after the American Civil War, reformers wanted to fulfill the promise of the American Revolution by giving both blacks and women the right to vote. Legal changes needed for woman suffrage seemed to shake the foundation of the male-female relationship. Disagreement over the implications of women's rights for sexuality triggered a political, legal, and religious battle for the soul of marriage. Crossing Swords explores the contentious free-love movement through the love lives, careers, and public statements of Mary Baker Eddy and Victoria Woodhull, who came from completely different backgrounds and had polar opposite views on marriage and sexuality. This thought-provoking story is a surprisingly relevant prequel to the similarly divisive social issues of our own era.

Praise

"Crossing Swords tells the intertwined tales of Victoria Woodhull and Mary Baker Eddy two fearless American iconoclasts whose work on sex, love, and women s rights changed the course of American culture. Cindy Peyser Safronoff does a great job of bringing these fascinating women back to life in all of their brilliance and eccentricity for a new generation of readers." —Debby Applegate, Pulitzer Prize winner for The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher

Cindy Peyser Safronoff
Cindy Peyser Safronoff

Cindy Peyser Safronoff

A graduate of The Bush School, The Evergreen State College, and the University of Washington Genealogy and Family History program, author Cindy Peyser Safronoff combined her interests in historical research, female leadership, religious theology, and civic dialogs to explore this 1870s marriage debate. Safronoff currently divides her time between urban Seattle on the liberal Left Coast and suburban St. Louis, conservative crossroads of the midwestern Heartland and the southern Bible Belt. This biregional lifestyle has helped her better understand the conflicting viewpoints within American culture explored in Crossing Swords.

Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

Walking from the Harvard Square T station: 2 minutes

As you exit the station, reverse your direction and walk east along Mass. Ave. in front of the Cambridge Savings Bank. Cross Dunster St. and proceed along Mass. Ave for three more blocks. You will pass Au Bon Pain, JP Licks, and TD Bank. Harvard Book Store is located at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Plympton St.

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