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“Jill Lepore’s obsessively researched book on Wonder Woman, the four-color embodiment of the women’s rights movement, reveals that the life of the character’s creator, Dr. William Marston—inventor of the lie detector, charming crank, ardent feminist and secret polygamist—was waaay more colorful than any comic book superhero. Suffering Sappho!”
— Art Spiegelman, New York Times bestselling author of Maus II
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“Links the iconic superhero’s 1941
creation by William Moulton Marston (also the inventor of the lie detector)
both to the aims of mid-twentieth-century feminism and to the influential
Marston family’s deep domestic intrigues.”
— Elle
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“Ms. Lepore’s lively, surprising, and occasionally salacious history is far
more than the story of a comic strip. The author, a professor of history at
Harvard, places Wonder Woman squarely in the story of women’s rights in
America—a cycle of rights won, lost, and endlessly fought for again. Like many
illuminating histories, this one shows how issues we debate today were under
contention just as vigorously decades ago, including birth control, sex
education, the ways in which women can combine work and family, and the effects
of ‘violent entertainment’ on children…Her superb narrative brings that history
vividly into the present, weaving individual lives into the sweeping changes of
the century.”
— Wall Street Journal
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“Lepore clearly has a passion for intelligent, opinionated women whose
legacies have been overshadowed by the men they love…It has nearly everything
you might want in a page-turner: tales of S&M, skeletons in the closet, a
believe-it-or-not weirdness in its biographical details, and something else
that secretly powers even the most ‘serious’ feminist history—fun.”
— Entertainment Weekly
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“The Secret History of Wonder Woman
is the fullest and most fascinating portrait ever created about the complicated,
unconventional family that inspired one of the most enduring feminist icons in
pop culture….In [Lepore’s] hands, ‘The Secret History of Wonder Woman’ is its
own magic lasso, one that compels history to finally tell the truth about
Wonder Woman—and compels the rest of us to behold it.”
— Los Angeles Times
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“The Secret History of Wonder Woman relates a tale so improbable, so
juicy, it’ll have you saying, “Merciful Minerva!”…An astonishingly thorough
investigation of the man behind the world’s most popular female superhero….With
Lepore’s zippy prose, it all makes for a supremely engaging reading
experience.”
— NPR
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“It’s an irresistible story, and the author tells it with relish and delight.”
— Kirkus Reviews
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“An absolutely unputdownable book. The life history of polymath charlatan and/or genius (I couldn’t ever decide) William Moulton Marston, who worked his way through law, movie scenarios, lie detection, ménages a trois, free love, BDSM, and polygamy before creating the first feminist super-person had me saying ‘wow’ practically every other page. And that’s not even mentioning the tough-as-nails women he exalted, lifted from, and, uh, shared who make up the molten core of this newly revealed story. Rocketing from the suffragism of the 1910s to the ERA of the 1970s on a wave of homespun pop culture righteousness, this story’s head-spinning weirdness ultimately makes you question your own accomplishments, aims, and—almost like a great modern novel—your real motives.”
— Chris Ware, author of Building Stories
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“The Secret History of Wonder Woman is as racy, as improbable, as awesomely righteous, and as filled with curious devices as an episode of the comic book itself. In the nexus of feminism and popular culture, Jill Lepore has found a revelatory chapter of American history. I will never look at Wonder Woman’s bracelets the same way again.”
— Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home
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“Lepore’s book is powerful…Her voice is sometimes screechy and quavering and does not lend itself
to male dialogue. But the book is amazing as it reveals Marston’s desire to be
dominated by women and his peculiar lifestyle with the two, possibly three,
women who shared his home.”
— AudioFile