About the Book

A riveting history about the little-known rivalry between Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett that profoundly shaped reproductive rights in America

In the 1910s, as the birth control movement was born, two leaders emerged: Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett. While Sanger would go on to found Planned Parenthood, Dennett’s name has largely faded from public knowledge. Each held a radically different vision for what reproductive autonomy and birth control access should look like in America.

Few are aware of the fierce personal and political rivalry that played out between Sanger and Dennett over decades—a battle that had a profound impact on the lives of American women. Meticulously researched and vividly drawn, The Icon and the Idealist reveals how and why these two women came to activism, the origins of the clash between them, and the ways in which their missteps and breakthroughs have reverberated across American society for generations.

With deep archival scope and rigorous execution, Stephanie Gorton weaves together a personal narrative of two fascinating women and the political history of a country rocked by changing social norms, the Depression, and a fervor for eugenics. Refusing to shy away from the enmeshed struggles of race, class, and gender, Gorton has made a sweeping examination of every force that has come in the way of women’s reproductive freedom.

Brimming with insight and compelling portraits of women’s struggles throughout the twentieth century, The Icon and the Idealist is a comprehensive history of a radical cultural movement. 

Critical Praise

“Stephanie Gorton recounts the complex, often infuriating, history of the movement to legalize birth control through the rivalry between its two greatest advocates. The Icon and the Idealist is a fascinating portrait of ambition and idealism, politics and passion, and a shocking reminder of just how far some men will go to keep women ignorant and powerless over their own bodies.” — Debby Applegate, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age

“The Icon and the Idealist is a shrewd and important work, brilliantly conceived and beautifully written. With rigorous reporting and brutal honestly, Stephanie Gorton excels in examining the bold ideas and messy work that shaped reproductive choice.” — Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of King: A Life and The Birth of the Pill

"There is no time like the present for Stephanie Gorton’s dual biography of the fiercely formidable women, Mary Ware Dennett and Margaret Sanger, who brought the fight for reproductive rights to the American public in the early twentieth century. Studded with dramatic scenes and supported by copious research on the multifaceted and ever-evolving campaign to legalize birth control, a term coined by Sanger, Gorton’s narrative humanizes and makes modern the high-stakes battle waged a century in the past, providing needed inspiration for today’s readers who seek to practice and uphold the human right to self-determination." — Megan Marshall, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Margaret Fuller: A New American Life, The Peabody Sisters, and Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast

"What does it take to make a once-radical idea normal? The Icon and the Idealist is the captivating and substantive account of two singular women who did just that, Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett. Before them and the family planning movement, birth control was rare, unsafe and shameful. After them, millions of women had unprecedented possession over their own lives. This dual biography grippingly recounts a flash point in women’s—and human—liberation." — Alissa Quart, Author of Bootstrapped and Squeezed

“The Icon and the Idealist is an essential, and accessible, look at the U.S.'s fraught history of reproductive freedoms through the lives of two leaders as complex and nuanced as the topic itself.” — Rachel Somerstein, author of Invisible Labor

"The Icon and the Idealist is a shrewd and deeply researched dual biography, one that compares and contrasts two legendary (and maddeningly complex) 20th century feminist figures, Margaret Sanger and Mary Dennett, in ways that shed new light on their individual and dual accomplishments and conflicts. It's also, like the best of cultural histories, all too necessary at a time when women's bodily autonomy is under new and renewed threats." — Sarah Weinman, author of The Real Lolita and Scoundrel

“Drawing on considerable archival sources, journalist Gorton creates an informative history of the fight for women’s reproductive rights in [this] dual biography. . . . A timely contribution to a virulent debate.” — Kirkus Reviews

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Product Details

• ISBN: 9780063036291
• ISBN 10: 0063036290
• Imprint: Ecco
• On Sale: 11/26/2024
• Trimsize: 6.000 in (w) x 9.000 in (h) x 1.300 in (d)
• Pages: 464
• List Price: $32.00
• BISAC1 : HISTORY / United States / 20th Century
• BISAC2 : SOCIAL SCIENCE / Abortion & Birth Control
• BISAC3 : HISTORY / Women