Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists: A Graphic History of Women’s Fight for Their Rights

This book sets out to provide an outline of primarily women’s rights by outlining prevailing laws throughout history, events that influenced women’s rights, and the personalities that publicly advocated for their rights. Towards the end, it also presents snapshots of LGBTQ rights. The setting is school children arguing about women’s rights, and the AI Program gives them a tour through history about the development of women’s rights. The history lesson starts in Antiquity and progresses to contemporary times.

The early portion of women’s rights spans the entire world. However, from the eighteenth century onwards, the focus shifts primarily to the Western World. The book does cover a lot of ground and emphasizes the breadth of coverage rather than depth, which works well with its graphic novel format. Readers looking for more than just a paragraph on a particular event or personality will have to do further research on their own. There is no list of sources, and the personalities profiled or events covered have omissions – a necessary feature of a work of this scope. Some readers may find the quick transitions a little jarring, but the work’s intent is more like that of a dictionary than an encyclopedia. Overall, a good introduction to the history of women’s rights.