“Jane Mansbridge has brought the cool eye of a true scholar to one of the most
painful subjects in recent feminist history, and the result is a work of enormous
importance. Her analysis is painstaking, original, and always eye-opening. At the
risk of sounding authoritarian, I am going to insist that anyone of my acquaintance
who considers him- or herself an advocate of women’s rights, read this
book and be prepared to discuss it, word for lucid word.”

Barbara Ehrenreich

“I am so grateful to Jane Mansbridge for writing this book. It answers all the
questions that have haunted me since the ERA failed the last day of June 1982.
When I finished Why We Lost the ERA, I understood at last the politics, the mistakes and the courageous choices of the fight I could only try to understand as I reported on it during those long years.”

Jane O'Reilly, author of The Girl I Left Behind

“In this work, Jane Mansbridge’s fresh insights uncover a significant democratic
irony—the development of self-defeating, contradictory forces within a democratic
movement in the course of its struggle to promote its version of the
common good. Mansbridge’s book is absolutely essential reading for anyone
interested in democratic theory and practice.”

Peter Bachrach, author of The Theory of Democratic Elitism

“An absolutely first-rate book. Not only did I learn a lot, but it was a good read.
It’s not often that a professional book turns out to be a page turner.”

Kay L. Scholozman, author of Organized Interests and American Democracy