Battling Bella

September 30, 2019
University of Houston professor Zarnow debuts with a dynamic exploration of the political career of New York congresswoman Bella Abzug. Born in the Bronx in 1920 to Jewish immigrants from Russia, Abzug earned a scholarship to Columbia Law School in 1942. As a young lawyer, she convinced the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the execution of a black Mississippi man convicted of raping a white woman. During the 1960s, she served as the director of Women Strike for Peace, turning the grassroots organization into a “decisive lobbying powerhouse” that, according to Zarnow, helped to push Lyndon Johnson out of the 1968 presidential election. Running as a “leftist urban populist” in the 1970 midterms, Abzug “attempted to connect emerging identity politics with the bread-and-butter issues that mattered most to the Democratic Party’s blue-collar base.” Zarnow writes that Abzug found herself “quickly isolated” in Congress, but managed to pursue her antiwar and feminist agenda through the “savvy” use of procedural measures. After losing back-to-back bids for the Senate and New York City mayor, Abzug became the presiding officer of the 1977 National Women’s Conference. Zarnow sketches a vibrant picture of Abzug’s tumultuous era and draws apt comparisons between her firebrand subject and the latest crop of progressive congresswomen. This well-researched biography will appeal to liberal activists and students of political history.

September 13, 2019

An emblem of mid-20th-century feminism, Bella Abzug (1920-88) is unforgettable for her dramatic flair in politics, even as she approached her work as a lawyer tenaciously and pragmatically. Most of her political career took place during the 1970s, and while the majority of this book concentrates on those years, Zarnow (history, Univ. of Houston) examines her early legal career and the precedents it set for her future as a feminist politician. What emerges is a compelling portrait of a woman who pursued her goals with a single-minded intensity that is inspiring, perhaps all the more so owing to the focus on Abzug's home life and marriage, which was equal in a way that is unusual even today. Zarnow states the intention of critiquing Abzug's politics where they fail from an intersectional point of view, but there is a limited case made for her being overly pragmatic except in the case of her not backing Shirley Chilsom's presidential run.

VERDICT A fascinating ride through some of the fastest-paced politics of the 1960s with a larger-than-life character and well suited for feminist history readers.--Margaret Heller, Loyola Univ. Chicago Libs.

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