The small and the mighty : twelve unsung Americans who changed the course of history, from the founding to the civil rights movement

McMahon, Sharon, 1977- author.

Book

New York : Thesis, [2024]

©2024

307 pages ; 24 cm

"From America's favorite government teacher, a heartfelt, inspiring portrait of twelve ordinary Americans whose courage formed the character of our country. In The Small and the Mighty, Sharon McMahon proves that the most remarkable Americans are often ordinary people who didn't make it into the textbooks. Not the presidents, but the telephone operators. Not the aristocrats, but the schoolteachers. Through meticulous research, she discovers history's unsung characters and brings their rich, riveting stories to light for the first time. You'll meet a woman astride a white horse riding down Pennsylvania Ave, a young boy detained at a Japanese incarceration camp, a formerly enslaved woman on a mission to reunite with her daughter, a poet on a train, and a teacher who learns to work with her enemies. More than one thing is bombed, and multiple people surprisingly become rich. Some rich with money, and some wealthy with things that matter more. This is a book about what really made America--and Americans--great. McMahon's cast of improbable champions will become familiar friends, lighting the path we journey in our quest to make the world more just, peaceful, good, and free"-- Provided by publisher.

Social reformers -- United States -- History.

United States -- History -- Anecdotes.

United States -- Biography.

Biographies.

New York, 1804 -- Angel of the Rockies. Clara Brown, Kentucky, 1830s -- Bleeding Kansas, 1850s -- Clara Brown, Colorado, 1870s -- The next needed thing. Virginia Randolph, Virginia, 1890 -- Henrico County, Virginia, 1907 -- America the Beautiful. Katharine Lee Bates, Cape Cod, 1859 -- Katharine Lee Bates, England, 1880s -- Katharine Lee Bates, Chicago, 1890s -- Forward out of darkness. Inez Milholland, New York, 1910 -- Maria de Lopez, California, 1911 -- Rebecca Brown Mitchell, Idaho, 1856 -- Inez Milholland, the West, 1916 -- France, 1916 -- An orientation of the spirit. Anna Thomas Jeanes, Philadelphia, 1822 -- William James Edwards, Alabama, 1869 -- Julius Rosenwald, Illinois, 1862 -- Booker T. Washington, Virginia, 1856 -- Go for broke. The Inouyes, Hawaii, 1924 -- The Minetas, California, 1942 -- Daniel Inouye, Europe, 1943 -- Norman Mineta, 1950s -- Momentum. Claudette Colvin, Alabama, 1950s -- Septima Clark, Charleston, South Carolina, 1898 -- America, 1950s -- Teenagers in the American South, 1950s -- Montgomery, Alabama, 1955.

9780593541678