Chaucer’s Bookstore, 3321 State St., Santa Barbara, will feature local author Lorissa Rinehart for a book talk and signing of her “Winning the Earthquake: How Jeanette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress” (MacMillan), 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 4.
Interviewing Rinehart at the event will be former California State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson.
“Winning the Earthquake” is the first major biography of Jeannette Rankin, a groundbreaking suffragist, activist, and the first American woman to hold federal office, Chaucer’s said.
“Few members of Congress have ever stood more alone while being true to a higher honor and loyalty,” President John F. Kennedy said of Rankin.
Born on a Montana ranch in 1880, Rankin knew how to ride a horse, make a fire, and read the sky for weather. But most of all, she knew how to talk to people, how to convince them of her vision for America.
It was this rare skill that led her, in 1916, to become the first woman ever elected to the House of Representatives. As her first act, Rankin introduced the legislation that would become the 19th Amendment.
Throughout her two terms in 1916 and 1940, she continued to introduce and pass legislation benefiting unions, protecting workers, and increasing aid for children in poverty.
In 1941, she stood tall as the sole anti-war voice in Congress during World War II, advocating for pacifism in the face of tragedy and stating that you can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.
A suffragist, feminist, peace activist, workers’ rights advocate, progressive, and Republican, Rankin remained ever true to her beliefs, no matter the price she had to pay personally, Chaucer’s said.
Yet, despite the momentous steps she made for women in politics, overcoming the boys club of capitalists and career politicians who never wanted to see a woman in Congress, Rankin’s story has been largely forgotten.
Rinehart is a women’s historian, author and speaker. Her work examines the crossroads of women’s history, politics and war, uncovering the stories that have too often been left out of the spotlight. She is also the author of “First to the Front and Winning the Earthquake.”
Each week on her Substack and podcast, The Female Body Politic, Rinehart unpacks today’s headlines through the lens of 250 years of women’s political power in America.
She holds an MA in experimental humanities from NYU and a BA in literature from UC Santa Cruz.
Former State Sen. Jackson is a practicing attorney, educator and small-business owner.
Named one of 11 women “blazing new trails in American politics” by the Huffington Post and the “State Senator shifting California’s workplace culture” by The New York Times, she is a champion for women’s equality, the environment, and internet privacy.

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