Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes

From the best-selling author of King Leopold's Ghost and Spain in Our Hearts comes the astonishing but forgotten story of an immigrant sweatshop worker who married an heir to a great American fortune and became one of the most charismatic radical leaders of her time.

Rose Pastor arrived in New York City in 1903, a Jewish refugee from Russia who had worked in cigar factories since the age of eleven. Two years later, she captured headlines across the globe when she married James Graham Phelps Stokes, scion of one of the legendary 400 families of New York high society.

Together, this unusual couple joined the burgeoning Socialist Party and, over the next dozen years, moved among the liveliest group of activists and dreamers this country has ever seen. Their friends and houseguests included Emma Goldman, Big Bill Haywood, Eugene V. Debs, John Reed, Margaret Sanger, Jack London, and W.E.B. Du Bois.

Rose stirred audiences to tears and led strikes of restaurant waiters and garment workers. She campaigned alongside the country’s earliest feminists to publicly defy laws against distributing information about birth control, earning her notoriety as “one of the dangerous influences of the country” from President Woodrow Wilson. But in a way no one foresaw, her too-short life would end in the same abject poverty with which it began.

By a master of narrative nonfiction, Rebel Cinderella unearths the rich, overlooked life of a social justice campaigner who was truly ahead of her time.

Her story is a sweeping portrait of Progressive Era America—a collision of unimaginable wealth, radical politics, and one woman’s defiant pursuit of justice.

• Rags to Riches to Radical: Follow Rose’s journey from an immigrant cigar factory worker to the wife of a New York millionaire, and her transformation into one of the most charismatic socialists of her time.
• A Gilded Age Cross-Class Marriage: Explore the celebrated and scrutinized union between a Jewish refugee and a scion of high society, a relationship that captivated the nation and challenged its rigid social order.
• The Birth of Progressive Activism: Go inside the vibrant circles of early 20th-century reformers, where Rose campaigned for birth control with Margaret Sanger and led strikes with Big Bill Haywood.
• Immersive Narrative History: Uncover the forgotten story of a woman ahead of her time, brought to life with the vivid, page-turning detail that has made Adam Hochschild a master of the genre.

ADAM HOCHSCHILD is the author of twelve books. American Midnight was a New York Times Notable Book. King Leopold’s Ghost was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, as was To End All Wars. Bury the Chains was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and PEN USA Literary Award. He lives in Berkeley, California.