This was a hopeful, inspiring book for fraught political times. McMahon is an excellent writer, and she takes her readers on a journey through the life stories of about a dozen men and women (mostly from racialized minorities) who helped place America on a better path, even if their names today are largely forgotten. McMahon is an engaging writer, and the historical figures really came alive on the page. I have only two quibbles with the writing: first, while it is generally linear, it does have a tendency to meander off into tangents (like the old show Connections), so that sometimes I wasn’t sure why we were talking about an entirely different character from the one we were talking about a few pages ago. Second, McMahon has a tendency to address her readers directly (usually using “y’all”), which I found a little off-putting. But that’s a stylistic choice, and it clearly works for her. I especially liked the sense of perspective I got from this book, and especially this quote: “So no, America is not ‘the worst it’s ever been’ today…. Has anyone been beaten half to death on the floor of the Senate over the topic of whether it’s cool to enslave people this week? No? Okay.” I’d recommend this book to anyone who’s feeling hopeless in these increasingly authoritarian times.