The Woman They Could not Silence : : one Woman, her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the men who Tried to Make her Disappear

Locations
Call Number: Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / Social Activists / Packard, Elizabeth
On Shelf At: Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / Social Activists / Packard, Elizabeth	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / Social Activists / Packard, Elizabeth	4-week checkout	Due 05-13-2024
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / Social Activists / Packard, Elizabeth	4-week checkout	Due 05-21-2024

Illustrations on end caps.
Includes reading group guide and a conversation with the author (pages 456-464).
Prologue -- Brave new world -- Dark before the dawn -- My pen shall rage -- Deal with the devil? -- Turning points -- She will rise -- Epilogue -- Postscript.
"1860: As the clash between the states rolls slowly to a boil, Elizabeth Packard, housewife and mother of six, is facing her own battle. The enemy sits across the table and sleeps in the next room. Threatened by Elizabeth's intellect, independence, and outspokenness, her husband of twenty-one years is plotting against her and makes a plan to put her back in her place. One summer morning, he has her committed to an insane asylum. The horrific conditions inside the Illinois State Hospital in Jacksonville, Illinois, are overseen by Dr. Andrew McFarland, a man who will prove to be even more dangerous to Elizabeth than her traitorous husband. But most disturbing is that Elizabeth is not the only sane woman confined to the institution. There are many rational women on her ward who tell the same story: they've been committed not because they need medical treatment, but to keep them in line-conveniently labeled "crazy" so their voices are ignored. No one is willing to fight for their freedom, and disenfranchised both by gender and the stigma of their supposed madness, they cannot possibly fight for themselves. But Elizabeth is about to discover that the merit of losing everything is that you then have nothing to lose..."-- Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Library Journal Review
Booklist Review
Publishers Weekly Review
Summary / Annotation
Table of Contents
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Fascinating Page Turner submitted by andreawabeke on December 18, 2021, 10:08am Well-researched by Kate Moore of an incredible 19thC woman, Elizabeth Packard. Her incarceration at an 'insane asylum' for the mere charge of "thinking" and "novel reading" is a frightening history of woman as property but also of the disenfranchised and marginalized. Elizabeth's dedication to documenting her incarceration is incredible, from finding any paper whatsoever to detail her life there to sewing it into her clothing. While weighing in at a whopping 540 pages, Moore's narrative is a page turner I could not put down.