Belle Moskowitz

It is commonly believed that women's entry into the political realm is a recent phenomenon. This book shatters that myth, restoring to history the career of Belle Moskowitz - a woman who achieved unprecedented influence and power in American politics many decades before the contemporary era. As political advisor to Alfred E. Smith, four-term governor of New York and presidential candidate, Moskowitz played a crucial role in both state and national politics throughout the 1920s. Until recently, Moskowitz's career has not received the attention it deserves. Operating at a secondary level of politics in which her own career never seemed as important as that of the man for whom she worked, Moskowitz discarded many of her private papers. Elisabeth Israels Perry, who is Moskowitz's granddaughter, has searched thoroughly through private and public records to document Moskowitz's career, drawing as well on the reminiscences of Moskowitz's daughter, Miriam Israels Gabo. This biography was co-winner of the New York State Historical Association Manuscript Prize in 1987.