PATHWAYS TO FREEDOM

by Edwin D. Hoffman ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 23, 1964

Nine stories from American history with the power to excite. They are stories that have not been told so often that they are totally familiar. The reason for this is their lack of a single hero or heroine. These episodes concern ordinary citizens stubbornly battling inequities until new freedoms were guaranteed or promised freedoms made operative. The Quakers in pre-Revolutionary Massachusetts wore own the authorities by continually submitting, in increasing numbers, to public shippings, brandings, and hangings until the public stomach turned and they were allowed to practice their religion unmolested. Zenger's case is better known and, perhaps with unintentional irony, is part of a book that also includes the story of ""Coxey's Army""; Zenger's trial granted the newspapers the right to speak out and the unemployment petitioners who marched after Coxey had a lying press all the day. Sojourner Truth, ex-slave, old, unlovely and illiterate, confounded with logic the complacent clergy who argued against women's rights at the 19th century Ohio Women's Convention. The author has a talent for selecting the memorable quotation from the record. His well-documented accounts are put together with a storyteller's narrative power.

Pub Date: April 23, 1964

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1964

Categories: NONFICTION