the anti war movement for the next few decades. >> in 2004, we commissioned a new portrait of jeanette rankin. she's a person who is so important in the history and expansion of rights and representation in congress rankin. so when we commissioned it, we wanted to sort of show what it was like to come into congress as the first women, when women don't even have the right to vote nationally. because it was the 20th century, because it is 1916 and 1917 when she elected and enters congress, there's a lot of newspaper coverage of it. because she's a woman and something of a novelty, there's a lot of newspaper coverage about what she is wearing. we know exactly which she was wearing. the portrait itself shows her in that navy blue dress, and we know she was wearing a big hat, and we know exactly what the washington post said that morning. the portrait has her in those clothes holding the washington post. what's most interesting is she's wearing that hat and she was placed in that portrait just outside the chamber doors. she would take off her hat in the chamber because hats were not worn in the ch

when you look at it, you go back to 1917 with jeanette rankin, it's been this span of 298 women, almostomen up to this point. it's a long story but it's a good one. >> you can see this and all other american artifacts programs at our website, c-span.org/history. >>> weeknights this month, we're featuring american history tv programs as a preview of what's available every weekend on c-span3. next, charles stuart co-author of "fighting for the speakership: the house and the rise of party government." he discusses the history of electing a speaker of the house. u.s. house of representatives historian and house curator use a selection of artifacts to tell the history of african-americans in congress. later, legal and tax historian discusses his book "making the modern american fiscal state: law politics and the rise of progressive taxation." >>> charles stewart co-author of fighting for the speakership discusses the history of electing a speaker of the u.s. house in a new congress. he examines how the process has changed since 1789 and the influence of partisanship on those changes. >> it s

politicians continues as we go from jeanette rankin's pacifist views to senator arthur vent embark and iconic isolation mist who changed his and republican parties foreign policy after the pearl harbor attacks. on december 7th >> i propose that no other nation has any chance to use our silence as an alibi for ulterior designs. if such there be. i propose action instead of words, i propose action now, i propose it from the sake of a better world. but i say again and again that i propose it for our own american so vision. >> he first came to notoriety is one of the leading isolations. he had been a crusader for world war i in american involvement following woodrow wilson enthusiastically when he declared war in germany. like so many americans he was disillusioned with what happened after that. as the totalitarian states, mousse-y levy and then hitler were becoming belligerent in europe, arthur was one of those people who said, we got burned once already we don't to be involved again. he argued for a very strict neutrality act to get the u.s. out of what look like what might become europe

house of representatives, jeanette rankin, who would vote against war after the attack on pearl harbor. she was a lifelong pacifist and could not accept the violation of her principal even if the united states was attacked in 1941. also interestingly, the man who had just gotten the speakership of the house of representatives broke with the president, the director of his party, and refused to vote for the declaration. this is a time where great questions are at stake. people are intensely divided and politics is going to start impacting foreign policy. by the way, it is a great time because just as we are getting ready to debate how to end world war i, a pandemic breaks out. today, the cdc estimates about 670 5000 americans lost their lives in the great influenza. kansas city had about 2300 dead -- that is significantly larger than st. louis, who is better organized and ruthless when dealing with the influenza than kansas city was. in the month of october alone, 195,000 americans died. 50,000 americans died of wounds during world war i. and at about the time the senate is going to move

jane adams went to europe, so did the woman on the right of your screen, jeanette rankin, the first woman to serve in the american legislature in the house of representatives. she was the representative from the state of montana. and these two women and a dozen other american women traveled over to europe. withdid not go to meet that inter-allied women's conference that we were talking about earlier, because they saw that conference as fundamentally flawed because it only included women from the victorious nation. and they said if women are going to help build a lasting peace that is going to establish new terms for a new world order, then women from the victorious powers, neutral powers, and defeated powers need to be able to sit around a common table and talk about this forever. so the two of them on the screen, these american women traveled to zurich, switzerland, which of course was a neutral state where they gathered in may of 1919. they became the first international organization anywhere in the world to denounce the versailles treaty as a treaty of retribution and vindication, and

. >> the history of women in congress begins with jeanette rankin, who is elected to the house in 1916 from montana. she's elected to the house for years before women had the

so did the woman on the right-hand side of your screen, that's jeanette rankin. she was the representative from the state of montana. and these two women and a dozen other american women traveled over to europe. they did not go to meet with that interallied women's conference that we were talking about earlier because they saw that conference as fundamentally flawed because it only included women from the victorious nations. they said if women are going to help build a lasting peace that's going to establish new terms for a new world order, then women from neutral and defeated powers needed to sit around the common table and talk about this together. these american women traveled to switzerland which was a neutral state. they became the first international organization in the world to denounce the versailles treaty saying it was never going to create the terms for a lasting peace around the world. and they also tradrafted their women's charter which they took the train back to paris and delivered into the hands of the peacemaker, laying out women's demands that t

state capital in baton rouge, we travel to montana's capital city of helena and to the papers of jeanette rankin, the first woman to serve in the u.s. congress. >> we are in the montana historical society in the state archives. the archives is one of three programs that makes up the research center here at the historical society. today we're going to be talking about jeannette rankin. she was a woman from montana, the missoula area, actually, born in 1880. she was the first woman elected to the united states congress. that was in 1916. she was elected again in 1939 just before we got into world war ii. so she served two different terms but lots of years in between them. jeannette rankin, when she came into the congress, she came in with a bit of the fanfare. there was a bit of a honeymoon in which she was given a standing ovation when she walked into congress. she was given flowers. so it was a very positive time for her. that quickly ended, however, when she voted no for the u.s. entry into world war i. this is a letter from anna garland spencer. she's from meterville, pennsylvania. in it she t