The Small and the Mighty
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From America’s favorite government teacher, a “fascinating and fun” (Adam Grant) 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.
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I enjoy Sharon's work on her Instagram, where she explains news, context and big concepts in easy-to-understand ways, and I enjoyed reading this book too. I enjoyed the conversational tone, though it sounds like some reviewers didn't, but for me to dig into history and get anything out of it, it's gotta be interesting and engaging or I lose interest. This is a me problem. And while I had broad strokes knowledge about a lot of the topics in this book, I didn't know (or remember) a lot of the specifics.
(Like, did you know, when the segregationists were told they HAD to integrate schools in the 1950s, ‘cause SCOTUS says so - when asked what a reasonable timeline might be, the segregationists said by 2020. TWENTY TWENTY. CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE.)
I'm not sure who, exactly, the 12 unsung people are, because there are names alllllll over this (as it should be with history!) but even when I flipped back to the beginning and re-read the Table of Contents, there were more than 12 people included, so ... marketing I guess.
Things I want to remember though - that as history plods on, your actions are not forgotten. Do the next right thing. Take the next needed step.
Worth a read, though definitely not perfect.
