This account of women's abolitionist activity during the Civil War offers new evidence of the extent of women's political activism and reveals the historical significance of this activism. It revises the traditional view of feminism as lying dormant during the war. The activism of such women as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, through the Woman's National Loyal League, brought women into a political sphere from which they had previously been barred; it opened new avenues for feminist activists after the war. In addition to Stanton and Anthony, Wendy Haand Venet also explores the contributions of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Anna Dickinson, Julia Ward Howe, Fanny Kemble, Angelina Grimke Weld, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Lucy Stone, Lydia Maria Child, Lucretia Mott and others.