Title: The Small and the Mighty
Author: Sharon McMahon
Genre: nonfiction, history, informative
Pages: 320
Publication Date: Sep 24, 2024
StoryGraph* Moods: informative, inspiring, hopeful
How I Stumbled Upon This Book: Armchair Expert interview
Other Books by this author: no others at the time of writing this
*StoryGraph also offers content warnings.
Description: According to BookShop.Org, “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.”
Why I recommend this book: For one, it’s written unlike a history textbook. So if you found those to be dense and boring, then you’ll appreciate the tone and understanding of audience that McMahon demonstrates (and, in places, a bit of humor).
At its core, each chapter is about the impact a single person can have, and at a time where things can feel unstoppable, it’s inspiring to know that one person’s life can go a long way to making the world a better place. I was particularly drawn to the chapters dealing with education, where folks began just trying to build a school in their community in an effort to educate their children – but then didn’t stop there. One such person went on to train other teachers. One went on to build other schools. One, after her school, her life’s work, went up in literal flames didn’t admit defeat – she kept going.
Some of the stories are a bit surprising, like that of a partner to Sears & Roebuck, whose name is not well known because it was Jewish – who worked the broken system to make a huge impact. (One may argue he could have worked to change the system instead of living in it; ok, yes, but – we need to read these stories in the context of their times, to remember what was at stake.)
“Both of these things are true at the same time. America has been just, and it has perpetuated injustice. We have been peaceful, and we have perpetrated acts of violence. We have been—and are—good. And we have done terrible things to people who didn’t deserve them. It has been the land of the free while simultaneously sanctioning oppression.”
~ Sharon McMahon, The Small and the Mighty
Ami Maxine 