Description
In The Small and the Mighty, Sharon McMahon shows that the most remarkable Americans are often ordinary people who didn’t make it into the textbooks. Not presidents, but telephone operators. Not aristocrats, but schoolteachers. Through meticulous research, she uncovers 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 several people unexpectedly become rich—some with money, and some wealthy with things that matter more.
From America’s favorite government teacher, a heartfelt, inspiring portrait of twelve ordinary Americans whose courage formed the character of our country. 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 as we journey in our quest to make the world more just, peaceful, good, and free.