Winning the Earthquake: How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress

The first major biography of Jeannette Rankin, a groundbreaking suffragist, activist, and the first American woman to hold federal office.

"Few members of Congress have ever stood more alone while being true to a higher honor and loyalty."
--President John F. Kennedy on Jeannette Rankin

Born on a Montana ranch in 1880, Jeannette 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 and unite them around a shared vision for America. It was this rare skill that led her to become the first woman ever elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. As her first act, Rankin put forth the legislation that would become the Nineteenth Amendment.

During her two terms, beginning in 1917 and in 1941, she introduced and lobbied for legislation strengthening women's rights, protecting workers, supporting democratic electoral reform, and promoting peace through disarmament. As Congress's fiercest pacifist, she used her vote to oppose the declaration of war against the German Empire in 1917 and the Japanese Empire in 1941, holding fast to her belief that "you can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake."

A suffragist, peace activist, workers' rights advocate, and champion of democratic reform who ran as a Republican, Rankin remained ever faithful to her beliefs, no matter the price she had to pay personally. Despite overcoming the entrenched boys' club of oligarchic capitalists and career politicians to make enormous strides for women in politics, Rankin has been largely overlooked. In Winning the Earthquake, Lorissa Rinehart expertly recovers the compelling history behind this singular American hero, bringing her story back to life.

Author: Lorissa Rinehart
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 11/04/2025
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.24lbs
Size: 9.37h x 6.48w x 1.21d
ISBN: 9781250353047


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 10/01/2025 pg. 10
Kirkus Reviews 07/15/2025
Publishers Weekly 09/15/2025
Booklist 10/01/2025

About the Author

Lorissa Rinehart is a women's historian, author, and speaker who brings the past to life with fresh urgency. Her work dives into the powerful crossroads of women's history, politics, and war, uncovering the stories that have too often been left out of the spotlight. She's the author of First to the Front and Winning the Earthquake.

Each week on her Substack and podcast, The Female Body Politic, Lorissa 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, and is passionate about making history feel prescient, inclusive, and impossible to ignore.