emerges as a generous, demanding, unscru pulous politician and businessman who was, likehis sister,ambitious and self-centered. His financial support facilitatedRankin's political campaigns and lifeas an independentwoman. Italso anchored her in a "rural orthodoxy" at odds, according to theauthors,with her attrac tion to the radical ideas ofKatharine Anthony, her partnerElisabeth Irwin,and others (p.208). While a thorough examination of Rankin's interactions with like-minded women adds considerable depth to our understanding of her personal life,themeaning of the tension between being a Rankin and a radical remains obscure. The efforttodefine that tension pro duces a fascinating exploration ofHeterodoxy, a club founded in 1912by self-consciously re bellious New York women who met regularly for two decades, but the evidence of Rankin's involvement is thin. We might have benefited from a similar exploration of theNew York School ofPhilanthropy, which Rankin attended from 1908 to 1909. Missing entirely isa discus sion ofRankin's place in theevolvingwomen's political culture identifiedby historians Paula Baker andMelanie Gustafson or thegendered changes intwentieth-centurypolitics explored by political scientists JoFreeman and Kristi Andersen. Chapters on suffrage and political cam paigning add new insightson Rankin's personal styleand examine her rhetorical strategies at length.The discussion ofmaternalist, racist, and nativist arguments is crucial for under standing Rankin's response to the rhetorical exigencies ofher time,yetNancy Cott reminds us that tactical and strategic choices may not convey one's deepest beliefs. One wonders how the authors would engage Sara Hayden's discussion of Rankin's adaptation to different audiences and Paula Petrik's analysis ofhistori cal circumstances thatexplain shifting attitudes inMontana toward suffrageand progressive causes. This isthefullestaccount todate ofRankin's activities in office, her developing attitudes towardwar, her evolving position on labor is sues, the inner workings ofher staff, her roles in various progressive and pacifist causes between and afterher terms inoffice,her independence frompublic opinion, and,most significantly, inconsistencies in her thoughts and actions. "What emerges from her story,"the authors conclude, "is a struggle between the flawed and the noble: cheapness as well as the com mon good, arrogance as well as democratic spirit, meanness aswell as loftyideas, and self preoccupation as well as public service" (p. 225) .The willingness to identifyparadoxes and inconsistencies succeeds inhumanizing a hero,but does itdistinguishRankin from other political leaders?Even Gandhi has his critics. Readers will appreciate thecomplex person alitythatemergesfrom thesepages. Subsequent research may not reveal substantially new evi dence, but theneed toponder the meaning of her lifeand legacywill continue. That legacy must bemeasured not only bywhat shedid or did not do but also by the circumstances she faced. Scholars may find the claim that her identityas a Rankin trumped her radical prin ciples to be a psychological explanation that begs fordeeper consideration of thehistorical circumstances that shaped and constrained her choices. Kathryn Anderson WesternWashington University,Bellingham SPANNING WASHINGTON: HISTORICHIGHWAY BRIDGES OF THE EVERGREEN STATE byCraigHolstine andRichardHobbs Washington State University Press, Pullman, 2005. Illustrations, photos, maps, notes, bibliography, index. 280 pages. $24.95 paper. Historians Craig Holstine and Richard Hobbs have provided an excellent overview of Washington's historic bridges in Spanning Washington: Historic Highway Bridges of the EvergreenState. Like other states'bridge books, Reviews 635 thisone relieson thedocumentations gathered in theHistoric American Engineering Record (HAER) bridge program. A book like thismust itselfbe somewhat analogous to a highway bridge. Certainly there is room for imagination, but utility and reliabilityneed to prevail. The authors satisfy thepractical need by devoting Part II of their book to a catalogue of the premier historic bridges in each of six geographical areas of the state. Each geographical area gets a map showingmajor highways and the locations of historic highway bridges. Each bridge gets at leastone photo and a fewparagraphs detailing itsdates, designer, builder, and current status. There are also anecdotes about the bridges' histories, along with historic photos and engi neering drawings. Contemporary accounts of thebridges' construction,when available, add to the narrative. This catalog of bridges in Part II should satisfy the pontophiles and serve general readers as a reference, perhaps when they visit Washington. But Part I, the firsteighty-three pages of the book, has a different objective. Here, the authors present short essays on five separate...