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If you are new to politics, searching for a pleasurable read, or conducting research,
check out these comprehensive, though incomplete, lists of books covering a variety of 
topics and viewpoint related to women, politics, political activism and other components 
of NEW Leadership curriculum.If you have any suggestions or recommendations, 
please e-mail us at .


click on the category to see a list of resources
Apathy and Political Advocacy Feminist Theory
Autobiography/Biography Women and Elections
CAWP publications Women and Politics
Citizens and Democracy Women in Congress
Diversity in Politics Women's Political History

We are now an associate of Amazon.com. You can order any of the books found in our lists by clicking on the title. A percentage of the profits from any book purchased from our site goes to CAWP. CAWP does not endorse or recommend any particular book included on these lists. This is not an exhaustive list, only a sampling of the relevent books. CAWP will make every attempt to remain current with the literature, but suggestions and recommendations are strongly encouraged!

 

 

 

 
   
   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apathy and Political Advocacy

Organizing for Social Change: A Manual for Activists in the 1990s by Kim Bobo,
Jackie Kendall and Steve Max. Santa Ana, CA: Seven Locks Press, 1996.
 
Generation at the Crossroads: Apathy and Action on the American Campus by 
Paul Rogat Loeb. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1994.
Making the News: A Guide for Nonprofits and Activists by Jason Salzman.
Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998.
 

Networks of Champions: Leadership, Access and Advocacy in the U.S. House
of Representatives by Christine A. Degregorio. Lansing, MI: Univ. of Michigan 
Press, 1997.
 
So You Want to Make a Difference: Advocacy is the Key by Nancy Amidei.
Washington, DC: OMB Watch, 1991.
Women for a Change: A Grassroots Guide to Activism and Politics by Thalia 
Zepatos and Elizabeth Kaufman. New York: Facts of Life, 1995.
   
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Autobiography/Biography

 
Nine and Counting: The Women of the Senate by Barbara Mikulski, Kay Bailey
Hutchison (eds.), Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, Patty Murray, Olympia 
Snowe, Susan M. Collins, Mary L. Landrieu, Blanche Lambert Lincoln, with
Catherine Whitney. New York: William Morrow & Co., 2000.
Stepping Up to Power: The Political Journey of American Women by Harriett 
Woods. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999.
 
24 Years of House Work and the Place Is Still a Mess: My Life in Politics by 
Pat Schroeder. Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1998.
 
Aganist the Tide: One Woman's Political Stuggle by Harriet Keyserling. 
Columbia: Univ. of South Carolina Press, 1998.
Barbara Jordan: American Hero by Mary Beth Rogers. New York; London: Bantam 
Books, 1998.
 
Representative Mom: Balancing Budgets, Bill and Baby in the U.S. Congress by 
Susan Molinari. New York: Doubleday, 1998.
 
From Border Crossing to Campaign Trail: Political Chronicle of a Latina by
Emma Sepulveda. Falls Church, VA: Azul Editions, 1998.

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Citizens and Democracy

 
Citizen Democracy: Political Activists in a Cynical Age by Stephen E. Frantzich.
Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1999.
 
Education for Democracy: Citizenship, Community, Service: A Source book for 
Students and Teachers edited by Benjamin R. Barber and Richard M. Battistoni. 
Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1999.
After the Boom: The Politics of Generation X by Stephen C. Craig and Stephen 
Earl Bennett (eds.) Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1997
Collaborative Leadership: How Citizens and Civic Leadership Can Make a Difference
by David D. Chrislip and Carl E. Larson. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1994.
 
National Service, Citizenship, and Political Education by Eric B. Gorham. Albany:
State University of New York Press, 1992.
 
 
 
 

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Diversity in Politics

 
Faces of Inequality: Social Diversity in American Politics by Rodney E. Hero. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2000.
 
Trailblazers: Profiles of America's Gay and Lesbian Elected Officials by Kenneth E. Yeager.
New York: Harrington Park Press, 2000.
 
Pursuing Power: Latinos and the Political System edited by F. Chris Garcia. Notre Dame,
Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997.
We Are Everywhere: A Historical Sourcebook of Gay and Lesbian Politics edited by Mark
Blasius and Sane Phelan. New York: Routledge, 1997.
 
Hispanics in Congress: A Historical and Political Survey by Maurilio E. Vigil. Lanham, Md: 
University Press of America, 1996.
 
I Used to Be Nice: Reflections on Feminist and Lesbian Politics by Sue O'Sullivan. 
New York: Cassell Academic, 1996.
When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America. by 
Paula Giddings. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1996. 2nd edition.
 
Bisexual Politics: Theories, Queries, & Visions edited by Naomi Tucker, Liz A. Highleyman
and Rebecca Kaplan. New York: Harrington Park Press, 1995.
Race Matters by Cornel West. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.
 
Latina Politics, Latino Politics: Gender, Culture, and Political Participation in Boston by
Carol Hardy-Fanta. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993.

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Feminist Theory

 
  The Black Feminist Reader by Joy James and T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting (eds.). Malden, MA : Blackwell Publishers, 2000.
Feminism on the Border: Chicana Gender Politics and Literature by Sonia 
Saldivar-Hull. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000.
 
The Right Women: A Journey Through the Heart of Conservative America by 
Elinor Burkett. New York, NY: Scribner, 1998
Real Politics: At the Center of Everyday Life by Jean Bethke Elshtain. Baltimore,
MD: John Hopkins University Press, 1997.
 
Unsettled Subjects: Restoring Feminist Politics to Poststructuralist Crititue by 
Susan Lurie. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997.
 
Revisioning the Political: Feminist Reconstructions of Traditional Concepts in
Western Political Theory by Nancy J. Hirschmann and Christine DiStefano. 
Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997.
 
Women's Political Voice: How Women are Transforming the Practice and Study
of Politics by Janet A. Flammang. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1997
 
Lesbian Subjects: A Feminist Studies Reader by Martha Vicinus (ed.). 
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1996.
Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of
Empowerment by Patricia Hill Collins. New York: Routledge, 1991.
 
Beyond Oppression: Feminist Theory and Political Strategy by Mary Hawkesworth.
New York: Continuum, 1990.
 
The Inessential Woman: Problems of Exclusion in Feminist Thought by Elizabeth
V. Spellman. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1998.
Women, Race and Class by Angela Y. Davis. New York: 
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Women and Elections

 
The Missing Majority by David Niven. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998.
 
Voice, Trust, and Memory by Melissa S. Williams. Princeton, NJ: Princenton
University Press, 1998.
Whatever Happened to the Year of the Woman? : Why Women Still Aren't 
Making It to the Top in Politics by Amy H. Handlin. Deven, CO: Arden Press, 1998.
 
The Political Consequences of Being a Woman by Kim Fridkin Kahn. New York:
Columbia University Press, 1996.
Running as a Woman: Gender & Power in American Politics by Linda Witt, Karen
M. Paget and Glenna Matthews. New York: Simon & Schuster Trade, 1995.
 
Electoral Systems in Comparative Perspective: Their Impact on Women & Minorities
edited by Wilma Rule and Joseph F. Zimmerman. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press,
1994.
 
The Year of the Woman: Myths and Realities edited by Elizabeth Adell Cook, Sue
Thomas and Clyde Wilcox. Boulder: Westview Press, 1994.
 
Women as Candidates in American Politics by Susan J. Carroll. Bloomington
Indiana University Press, 1994, c1984.
 
Women, Elections and Representation by R. Darcy, Susan Welch and Janet Clark. 
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994.
   
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Women and Politics

Women & Elective Office: Past, Present, & Future edited by Sue Thomas and
Clyde Wilcox. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
 
The Politics of Motherhood: Activist Voices from Left and Right by Alexis
Jetter, Annelise Orleck, and Dianna Taylor. Hannover, CT: Dartmouth College,
1997.
 
The Republican War Against Women: An Insider's Report from Behind the Lines
by Tanya Melich. New York: Bantam Books, 1996.
A Voice of Our Own: Leading American Women Celebrate the Right to Vote
by Nancy M. Neuman. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., 1996.
 
Women Politicians and the Media by Maria Braden. Lexington, KY: University 
Press of Kentucky, 1996.
 
Gender Power, Leadership, & Governance by Georgia Duerst-Lahti and Rita M.
Kelly. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995.
 
How Women Legislate by Sue Thomas. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
 
In the Running: The New Woman Candidate by Ruth B. Mandel. New Haven: 
Ticknor & Fields, 1981
 
Women, Media and Politics edited by Pippa Norris. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997
 
 

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Women in Congress

 
Women on the Hill: Culture of Congress by Clara Bingham. New York: Random House, Inc.,
1997.
African American Women in Congress: Forming and Transforming History by Laverne M. Gill.
New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997.
 
Challenging the Status Quo: From City Hall to Congress by Sue Myrick. Nashville, TN:
Thomas Nelson Inc., 1997.
 
Climbing the Hill: Gender Conflict in Congress by Karen Foerstel and Herbert N. Foerstel.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., 1996.
 
Gender Dynamics in Congressional Elections by Richard L. Fox. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications, 1996.
 
Women on the Hill: A History of Women in Congress by Jill S. Pollack. Danbury, CT: 
Frankil Watts Inc., 1996.
Congressional Women by Irwin N. Gertzog. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group,
Inc., 1995.
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Women's Political History

 
A Room at a Time: How Women Entered Party Politics by Jo Freeman. Lanham, MD:
Rowman & Littlefield, 2000.
 
Women in Modern American Politics: A Bibliography, 1900-1995 by Elizabeth M.
Cox. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1999.
Splintered Sisterhood: Gender & Class in the Campaign Against Woman Suffrage
by Susan E. Marshall. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1997.
Changing Differences: Women & the Shaping of American Foreign Policy 1917-
1994 by Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997.
American Women & the Repeal of Prohibition by Kenneth D. Rose. New York: 
New York University Press, 1997.
 
After Suffrage: Women in Partisan & Electoral Politics Before the New Deal by
Kristi Andersen. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
 
Black Women Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement by Zita Allen. Danbury, CT:
Franklin Watts, 1996.
Equivocal Feminists: The Social Democratic Federation & the Woman Question 
1884-1911 by Karen Hunt. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
 
Before Equal Suffrage: Women in Partisan Politics From Colonial Times to 1920
by Robert J. Dinkin. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., 1995.
 
Common Sense & A Little Fire: Women and Working-Class Politics in the United
States, 1900-1965 by Annalise Orleck. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
1995.
 
The Abolitionist Sisterhood: Woman's Political Culture in Antebellum America
by Jean F. Yellin and John C. Van Horne. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univeristy Press, 1994.
 
The Rise of Public Woman by Glenna Matthews. London: Oxford University Press, 
1992.
 
Women, Politics, and Change edited by Louise Tilly and Patricia Gurin. New York
Russell Sage Foundation, 1990.
 
Born for Liberty: A History of Women in America by Sara M. Evans. New York:
Free Press, 1997 (reprint ed.).
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Organizing for Social Change Women for a Change Stepping Up to Power American Hero After the Boom: The Politics of the Generation X Collaborative Leadership We Are Everywhere When and Where I Enter Race Matters Feminism on the Border Real Politics Black Feminist Thought Women, Race and Class Whatever Happened to the Year of the Woman? Running as a Woman: Gender & Power in American Politics Women & Elective Office A Voice of Our Own African American Women in Congress Congressional Women Splintered Sisterhood: Gender & Class in the Campaign Against Woman Suffrage Splintered Sisterhood: Gender & Class in the Campaign Against Woman Suffrage Splintered Sisterhood: Gender & Class in the Campaign Against Woman Suffrage Splintered Sisterhood: Gender & Class in the Campaign Against Woman Suffrage Splintered Sisterhood: Gender & Class in the Campaign Against Woman Suffrage Splintered Sisterhood: Gender & Class in the Campaign Against Woman Suffrage Splintered Sisterhood: Gender & Class in the Campaign Against Woman Suffrage Splintered Sisterhood: Gender & Class in the Campaign Against Woman Suffrage Changing Differences: Women & Shaping of American Foreign Policy American Women & the Repeal of Prohibition Equivocal Feminists