Eleanor Baldwin and the Woman's Point of View: New Thought Radicalism in Portland's Progressive Era
Eleanor Baldwin and the Woman’s Point of View is an intellectual biography of a long-forgotten radical female journalist in Portland, whose daily women’s columns provide a window into the breadth of intellectual radicalism in Progressive Era journalism. Baldwin was one of an early generation of female journalists who were hired to lure female readers to the daily newspaper’s department store advertisements. Instead of catering to the demands of consumerism, Baldwin quickly brought an anti-capitalist, antiracist agenda to her column, “The Woman’s Point of View." She eschewed household hints and instead focused on the immorality of capitalists and imperialists while emphasizing the need for women to become independent and productive citizens. 
 
A century before the Occupy movement and the Women’s March, Baldwin spoke truth to power. Imbued with a New Thought spirituality that presumed progressive thought could directly affect material reality, she wrote to move history forward. And yet, the trajectory of history proved as hard to forecast then as now.  While her personal story seems to embody a modern progressivism, blending abolition with labor reform and anti-banker activism—positions from which she never wavered—her path grew more complicated as times changed in the aftermath of World War I, when she would advocate on behalf of both the Bolsheviks and the Ku Klux Klan.
 
In this deeply researched and nuanced account of Eleanor Baldwin’s intellectual journey, historian Larry Lipin reveals how even the most dedicated radical can be overcome by unforeseen events. Eleanor Baldwin and the Woman’s Point of View restores a missing chapter in Portland’s Progressive Era history and rescues this passionate, intriguing, and quixotic character from undeserved obscurity.
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Eleanor Baldwin and the Woman's Point of View: New Thought Radicalism in Portland's Progressive Era
Eleanor Baldwin and the Woman’s Point of View is an intellectual biography of a long-forgotten radical female journalist in Portland, whose daily women’s columns provide a window into the breadth of intellectual radicalism in Progressive Era journalism. Baldwin was one of an early generation of female journalists who were hired to lure female readers to the daily newspaper’s department store advertisements. Instead of catering to the demands of consumerism, Baldwin quickly brought an anti-capitalist, antiracist agenda to her column, “The Woman’s Point of View." She eschewed household hints and instead focused on the immorality of capitalists and imperialists while emphasizing the need for women to become independent and productive citizens. 
 
A century before the Occupy movement and the Women’s March, Baldwin spoke truth to power. Imbued with a New Thought spirituality that presumed progressive thought could directly affect material reality, she wrote to move history forward. And yet, the trajectory of history proved as hard to forecast then as now.  While her personal story seems to embody a modern progressivism, blending abolition with labor reform and anti-banker activism—positions from which she never wavered—her path grew more complicated as times changed in the aftermath of World War I, when she would advocate on behalf of both the Bolsheviks and the Ku Klux Klan.
 
In this deeply researched and nuanced account of Eleanor Baldwin’s intellectual journey, historian Larry Lipin reveals how even the most dedicated radical can be overcome by unforeseen events. Eleanor Baldwin and the Woman’s Point of View restores a missing chapter in Portland’s Progressive Era history and rescues this passionate, intriguing, and quixotic character from undeserved obscurity.
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Eleanor Baldwin and the Woman's Point of View: New Thought Radicalism in Portland's Progressive Era

Eleanor Baldwin and the Woman's Point of View: New Thought Radicalism in Portland's Progressive Era

by Lawrence M. Lipin
Eleanor Baldwin and the Woman's Point of View: New Thought Radicalism in Portland's Progressive Era

Eleanor Baldwin and the Woman's Point of View: New Thought Radicalism in Portland's Progressive Era

by Lawrence M. Lipin

Overview

Eleanor Baldwin and the Woman’s Point of View is an intellectual biography of a long-forgotten radical female journalist in Portland, whose daily women’s columns provide a window into the breadth of intellectual radicalism in Progressive Era journalism. Baldwin was one of an early generation of female journalists who were hired to lure female readers to the daily newspaper’s department store advertisements. Instead of catering to the demands of consumerism, Baldwin quickly brought an anti-capitalist, antiracist agenda to her column, “The Woman’s Point of View." She eschewed household hints and instead focused on the immorality of capitalists and imperialists while emphasizing the need for women to become independent and productive citizens. 
 
A century before the Occupy movement and the Women’s March, Baldwin spoke truth to power. Imbued with a New Thought spirituality that presumed progressive thought could directly affect material reality, she wrote to move history forward. And yet, the trajectory of history proved as hard to forecast then as now.  While her personal story seems to embody a modern progressivism, blending abolition with labor reform and anti-banker activism—positions from which she never wavered—her path grew more complicated as times changed in the aftermath of World War I, when she would advocate on behalf of both the Bolsheviks and the Ku Klux Klan.
 
In this deeply researched and nuanced account of Eleanor Baldwin’s intellectual journey, historian Larry Lipin reveals how even the most dedicated radical can be overcome by unforeseen events. Eleanor Baldwin and the Woman’s Point of View restores a missing chapter in Portland’s Progressive Era history and rescues this passionate, intriguing, and quixotic character from undeserved obscurity.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780870719103
Publisher: Oregon State University Press
Publication date: 10/15/2017
Edition description: 1
Pages: 272
Product dimensions: 5.70(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range: 3 Months to 18 Years

About the Author

Lawrence M. Lipin received his PhD from UCLA and has taught at Lewis and Clark College and Pacific University, where he has been honored as a Distinguished University Professor.  He has previously published two books, the more recent of which, Workers and the Wild, addresses the labor movement’s changing understanding of nature in early twentieth Century Oregon.  He has published research articles in various academic journals and has twice won the Joel Palmer Award for the best article published in a given year in the Oregon Historical Quarterly.
 

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 The Spreading of Abolitionist Roots 19

The Baldwin Family's Moral Economy

Chapter 2 A Vision of Progressive Womanhood 55

Chapter 3 The Radical Assault on Capitalism 97

Chapter 4 The Certainty of Progress 131

New Thought and the New Age

Chapter 5 The World of War, Bolsheviks, and the Klan 161

Epilogue 199

Notes 209

Bibliography 237

Index 249

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