Flight of the Dove:
The Story of Jeannette Rankin
"Flight of the Dove is an excellent account of the life and times of one of America's most dynamic and inspiring figures ... Kevin Giles has done us all a great service by authoring this well-researched and eminently readable account of Jeannette Rankin's life." -- Mike Mansfield, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader and Ambassador to Japan
"As important to read about as the Roosevelts, the Kennedys, the Lincolns and the Bobby Lees ... the book should not be overlooked or taken lightly." -- The Jackson Sun, Tennessee
"An excellent book. I really enjoyed reading Jeanette's story." -- Bill Yaeger, Intermountain Radio Network.
"Doubtless this new Rankin biography will receive wide readership." -- The Missoulian, Missoula, Mont.
"A dramatic account." -- Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore.
Excerpt from Flight of the Dove, the war vote of 1917:
Jeannette and her brother Wellington joined a long procession of people who filed sadly into the Capitol. The doves sweeping graciously in the air above them carried no olive branches in their beaks, but to the pacifists they signaled a final plea for peace. To Jeannette, they symbolized the possibility that heartfelt debated by self-collected men had reversed the trend toward war.
Still unsure how she would cast her vote, Jeannette took her regular seat toward the back of the great hall. Her eyelids drooped with fatigue and her mind churned with confusion. The debate wore on monotonously as one congressman after another arose to speak in favor of war. Jeannette remained silent as she fought to decide how she would vote when the debate came to an end, and glanced frequently at the big clock beneath the press gallery. Its hand crept tediously around the dial.
She was not oblivious to the somber chatter in the galleries above her, where behind fluttering handkerchiefs and crumpled evening editions of the Times were the dark faces of men and women who wondered how the first congresswoman would vote on the war resolution.
Where do I find Flight of the Dove: The Story of Jeannette Rankin?
Kevin S. Giles is working on a new edition of his biography of America's first congresswoman. The original press run is out of print, but copies are available at bookstores that find and sell out of print books.
Kevin hopes to release his new book in 2007.
Flight of the Dove was published in 1980 at Touchstone Press in Beaverton, Ore. In memory of Oral Bullard, editor, publisher and friend, taken by cancer.
Flight of the Dove, copyright 1980 Kevin S. Giles
Another book by Kevin S. Giles:
She was the lonely dissenter, a woman committed to follow the dictates of her conscience, regardless of the opinions of others. JEANNETTE RANKIN was a sturdy patriot. Daughter of a pioneer Montana family. The first woman elected to Congress. A guardian of democracy and an advocate of human rights and decency. In Flight of the Dove, Kevin S. Giles tells of Miss Rankin's rise to the challenge of social reform, to the driving thankless work of equal suffrage, to the congressional war vote that changed her into an unbending relentless worker for peace for 50 years.
