Lighting the Way : Nine Women Who Changed Modern America
"In an utterly absorbing narrative, Karenna Gore Schiff captures the lives of nine extraordinary women whose impact on contemporary America resonates today. Lighting the Way chronicles how these remarkable women worked behind the scenes and against the odds in the major political movements of the last century. The stories collected in Lighting the Way add color and texture to iconic moments in history, from the triumph of women's suffrage, to the decision to enter World War II, to the struggle for civil rights, to the effort to address the AIDS crisis. They also illustrate the value of honoring dissent; each of these women was ridiculed and ostracized for arguing for the changes in national policy that are taken for granted today. As Schiff vividly recounts, these women faced the mass forces of industrialization, urbanization, and immigration, with resourcefulness and creativity. Resistance to their public roles - and adversity in their private lives - only made them more innovative. In telling their personal stories, Schiff points out that women have always been consequential, if often unrecognized, political leaders and have been responsible for many of the fresh approaches that were so sorely needed in the darkest hours of our national history. Schiff opens her book by profiling Ida B. Wells-Barnett, a daughter of slaves who exposed and fought lynching; Mother Jones follows , and Irish immigrant who became a fiery and effective labor organizer; then Alice Hamilton, a mentor to Eleanor Roosevelt, who was responsible for regulating industrial toxins and mandating workplace safety; Frances Perkins, the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet and who crafted key New Deal legislation; Virginia Durr, who was born into Southern privilege and became a firebrand for racial equality; Septima Poinsette Clark, a gifted educator whose "citizenship schools" provided the backbone of the civil rights movement, registering thousands of voters and inspiring civic leaders such as Rosa Parks; Dolores Huerta, who has championed farmworkers and fought harmful pesticides; Helen Rodriguez-Trias, a trailblazer in the field of public-and particularly women's-health; and, finally, Gretchen Buchenholz, a child advocate who develops innovative ways to provide care and opportunity to the most needy and marginalized Americans. History shapes the lives that exist within it, but the nine women in Karenna Gore Schiff's Lighting the Way used their lives to shape history during turbulent times." -- Dust Jacket
Print Book, English, 2005
First edition
Miramax Books/Hyperion, New York, 2005