Visionary Women: How Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jane Goodall, and Alice Waters Changed Our World
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About this ebook
Winner of The Green Prize for Sustainable Literature
A Finalist for the PEN/Bograd Weld Prize for Biography
Four influential women we thought we knew well—Jane Jacobs, Rachel Carson, Jane Goodall, and Alice Waters—and how they spearheaded the modern progressive movement
This is the story of four visionaries who profoundly shaped the world we live in today. Together, these women—linked not by friendship or field, but by their choice to break with convention—showed what one person speaking truth to power can do. Jane Jacobs fought for livable cities and strong communities; Rachel Carson warned us about poisoning the environment; Jane Goodall demonstrated the indelible kinship between humans and animals; and Alice Waters urged us to reconsider what and how we eat.
With a keen eye for historical detail, Andrea Barnet traces the arc of each woman’s career and explores how their work collectively changed the course of history. While they hailed from different generations, Carson, Jacobs, Goodall, and Waters found their voices in the early sixties. At a time of enormous upheaval, all four stood as bulwarks against 1950s corporate culture and its war on nature. Consummate outsiders, each prevailed against powerful and mostly male adversaries while also anticipating the disaffections of the emerging counterculture.
Andrea Barnet
Andrea Barnet is the author of All-Night Party: The Women of Bohemian Greenwich Village and Harlem, 1913–1930, a nonfiction finalist for the 2004 Lambda Literary Awards. She was a regular contributor to the New York Times Book Review for twenty-five years, and her journalism has appeared in Smithsonian, Self, Harper’s Bazaar, and Elle, among other publications. She and her husband split their time between the Hudson Valley and New York City.
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Reviews for Visionary Women
11 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved this nonfiction about four women whose work in the 1960s truly changed the trajectory of how we interact with our environments. The book has an opening section that lays the groundwork for how the four, who didn't know each other, are connected. The gist is that they all were outsiders in their respective fields (mainly because they were women and not allowed in through traditional means) and all saw the beauty of the natural world or natural order of human interaction in contrast to the more widely held beliefs of technology running roughshod over nature to "improve" it. Each woman has a section that is a biography to highlight her contributions and there are references made to how their approaches were similar to each other. There is an end section that ties it all up neatly. I really loved this book. It was readable and interesting and had some new ideas, at least to me. Highly recommended.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My entire copy is underlined with notes in the margins.