Part biography of Rose Pastor Stokes, a Russian-Jewish immigrant who was heavily involved in labour organising in Gilded Age America and one half of a Cinderella-esque marriage to a scion of a wealthy family, part accessible overview of U.S. labor/socialist history during this period. Through her rags-to-riches marriage—she a Jewish working-class woman with limited formal education; he the son of a WASP family which prided itself on its lineage—Rose Pastor Stokes increasingly moved in circles that included such figures as Eugene Debs, W.E.B. Du Bois, Margaret Sanger, and Emma Goldman. Her combination of committed activism and fiery idealism made Stokes for a time one of the most famous women in the United States. Over time, Stokes' politics became more radical while those of her husband became conservative, and that, coupled with some fairly astonishing emotional immaturity on his part, put an end to their marriage. Reduced once more to poverty, Stokes' activist career came to an end and she died of cancer while still only in her 50s.

Adam Hochschild has produced a very serviceable biography of a fascinating woman in Rebel Cinderella, though the book's limitations are signalled in its title. While Hochschild is clearly aware that the Cinderella trope is a problematic one, I wish he'd done more to really break it down and to situate Stokes as much in the milieu of/perceptions of, say, other contemporary women activists as he contrasts her with her (far less interesting, far more in need of therapy) husband. ( )

Jewish immigrant Rose worked in cigar factories but managed to sell stories to Jewish papers. When she got hired at one, she was sent to interview a rich guy who did charitable/leftist stuff, and they fell in love. Later, she became even more radical—she was convicted for her antiwar sentiments during WWI—while he became more conservative. It’s a messy story, but during parts of her life she was the most reported-on woman in the US. ( )