The Secret History of Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman, created in 1941, is the most popular female superhero of all time. This book uncovers a trove of documents, including the private papers of William Moulton Marston, Wonder Woman's creator.

'A fascinating book.'

Préface
A riveting work of historical detection, revealing that the origins of one the world's most iconic Superheroes hides within it a fascinating family story - and a crucial history of twentieth-century feminism.

Auteur

Jill Lepore is a professor of American history at Harvard University and a staff writer at The New Yorker. Her books include Book of Ages, a finalist for the National Book Award; New York Burning, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; The Name of War, winner of the Bancroft Prize; and The Mansion of Happiness, which was short-listed for the 2013 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Texte du rabat

An investigation into the origins of comic book heroine Wonder Woman, who emerged in 1941 from the imagination of William Moulton Marston. Lepore argues that Wonder Woman is the missing link in the history of the struggle for women's rights.

Résumé

Like every other superhero, Wonder Woman has a secret identity. Unlike every other superhero, she also has a secret history.

Drawing from an astonishing trove of documents, including never-before-seen private papers, Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore reveals the fascinating family story that sparked the invention of the most popular female superhero of all time. Delving into the life of Wonder Woman's eccentric creator, psychologist William Moulton Marston, Lepore uncovers her feminist origins: from the warrior princesses of the Amazon, to suffragists including Emmeline Pankhurst, and the women Marston shared his life with his wife and his mistress. The Secret History of Wonder Woman is at once a riveting work of pop-culture history, and a crucial insight into the struggle for women's rights in the twentieth century and the troubled place of feminism today.