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After the miracle : the political crusades of Helen Keller

Wallace, Max (Author).

In this powerful new history, author Max Wallace draws on groundbreaking research to reframe Helen Keller's journey after the miracle, vividly bringing to light her rarely discussed, lifelong fight for social justice across gender, class, race, and ability. Raised in Alabama, she sent shockwaves through the South when she launched a public broadside against Jim Crow and donated to the NAACP. She used her fame to oppose American intervention in WWI. She spoke out against Hitler the month he took power in 1933 and embraced the anti-fascist cause during the Spanish Civil War. She was one of the first public figures to alert the world to the evils of Apartheid, raising money to defend Nelson Mandela when he faced the death penalty for High Treason. She lambasted Joseph McCarthy at the height of the Cold War, even as her contemporaries shied away from his notorious witch hunt. But who was this revolutionary figure? She was Helen Keller. From books to movies to Barbie dolls, most mainstream portrayals of Keller focus heavily on her struggles as a deafblind child-portraying her Teacher, Annie Sullivan, as a miracle worker. This narrative-which has often made Keller a secondary character in her own story-has resulted in few people knowing that Keller's greatest accomplishment was not learning to speak, but what she did with her voice when she found it. After the Miracle is a much-needed corrective to this antiquated narrative. In this first major biography of Keller in decades, Max Wallace reveals that the lionization of Sullivan at the expense of her famous pupil was no accident, and calls attention to Keller's efforts as a card-carrying socialist, fierce anti-racist, and progressive disability advocate. Despite being raised in an era when eugenics and discrimination were commonplace, Keller consistently challenged the media for its ableist coverage and was one of the first activists to highlight the links between disability and capitalism, even as she struggled against the expectations and prejudices of those closest to her. Peeling back the curtain that obscured Keller's political crusades in favor of her "inspirational" childhood, After the Miracle chronicles the complete legacy of one of the 20th century's most extraordinary figures

Book  - 2023
362.4 Kelle-W
1 copy / 0 on hold

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  • ISBN: 9781538707685 (hardcover)
  • Physical Description print
    viii, 403 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
  • Edition First edition.
  • Publisher 2023

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Bibliography, etc. Note: Includes bibliographical references and index.

Additional Information

Syndetic Solutions - Table of Contents for ISBN Number 9781538707685
After the Miracle : The Political Crusades of Helen Keller
After the Miracle : The Political Crusades of Helen Keller
by Wallace, Max
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Table of Contents

After the Miracle : The Political Crusades of Helen Keller

SectionSection DescriptionPage Number
Prologue1
Part 1Miracle vs. Myth
1    Before the Miracle5
2    Teacher18
3    "The Second Laura Bridgman"28
4    "A Bold Plagiarism"40
5    The Story of My Life55
6    "Mr. Clemens"67
Part 2The Left-Wing Joan of Arc
7    Political Epiphany79
8    "Industrial Blindness and Social Deafness"98
9    Radical Shift112
10    "A Defective Race"123
11    Helen vs. Jim Crow133
12    "A Little Island of Joy"143
13    Helen vs. Teddy Roosevelt152
14    "The Human Wonder"164
15    The Foundation178
16    Helen vs. the Führer189
Part 3Helen and the Reds
17    "The Spirit of Revolt"207
18    Fellow Traveler226
19    Gathering Storm236
20    Red Scare246
21    Helen vs. Apartheid262
22    Helen vs. Joe McCarthy280
Part 4Rewriting History
23    The Miracle Worker309
24    Helen and Teacher327
Epilogue339
Acknowledgments345
Primary Sources349
FBI Files351
Author Interviews353
Notes355
Index391
About the Author405