A lesson learned from OBSTINATE DAUGHTERS, by Denise Kiernan
The achievements of History's "great figures" are only possible with help from countless ordinary people. Whenever students ask me my favorite time periods to study, I inevitably fall back on three key eras--the American Revolution, the American Civil War and Reconstruction, and the 1960's. All three eras had key elements in common; they were times of significant, even wrenching change, and they all left behind debates and legacies that continue to shape American society to this day. With its deep-dive focus on the women of America's revolutionary generation, I was quite excited to visit Denise Kiernan's new book Obstinate Daughters , and it contains fascinating lessons about the importance of History's so-called "invisible figures"--people whose names no one memorizes for AP tests, yet who provided absolutely key roles for their era's sweeping changes. Kiernan's book jumps around quite a bit as she focuses on the stories of doz...