Vodcast with Sara Fitzgerald, author of "Elly Peterson: Mother of the Moderates"

This is a vodcast with Sara Fitzgerald, the author of the forthcoming University of Michigan Press title, Elly Peterson: "Mother" of the Moderates. It chronicles the life and political history of Elly Peterson, one of the highest ranking women in the Republican Party. In 1964 she ran for a Michigan seat in the U.S. Senate and became the first woman to serve as chair of the Michigan Republican Party. During the 1960s she grew disenchanted with the increasing conservatism of her party, united with other feminists to push for the Equal Rights Amendment and reproductive choice, battled Phyllis Schlafly to prevent her from gaining control of the National Federation of Republican Women, and became an independent.

 

A native of Michigan, Sara Fitzgerald worked for the Washington Post for 15 years as an editor and new-media developer. Prior to that, she worked as a reporter and editor for National Journal magazine, the St. Petersburg Times, the Miami Herald, and the Akron Beacon Journal.

See more Q&As with other University of Michigan Press authors at our YouTube page.

Comments

[Danny L. McDaniel]

If not for conservatives the Republican Party would still be the "minority" party. The analysis doesn't go deep enough in understanding how and why the conservative movement took the GOP over and why it continues to grow in numbers and political importance in the United States. If the Republican Party was made up of only moderates there would be a geniune third party to challenge the twp major parties or the moderate Republicans would throw their lot in with the Democrats.

I think this book on Elly Peterson will be of great political historical importance. But to discount the conservative movement without understanding the ideology and demagraphic changes that lead to its' emergence is a disservice to the topic.

Danny L. McDaniel
Lafayette, Indiana