In my audio essay, To the Class of 2010, from the Class of 1912, I mention my grandfather's great friend and classmate Jake Sicherman, and that the women of Jake's class gave his daughter Barbara something to write about. Barbara is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of American Institutions and Values, Emerita, at Trinity College, and one of the country's premier historians of women's history and medical history. (She's also a lifelong friend of my dad and our family.) Barbara's latest book is a work of great scholarship and still a page turner, describing how in the Gilded Age "adolescent reading was truly transformative in constructing female identity, stirring imaginations, and fostering ambition." I think Oprah and Oprah Book Club members would love this book. Sicherman writes: 'Where (Jane) Addams grew up in privilege, Winfrey came from a background of poverty, neglect and abuse and found in books "an open door to dwell in possibility." She echoes the stories of Jewish immigrants a century earlier when she observes, "Getting my library card was like citizenship, it was like American citizenship."' You will find the book at Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Barbara-Sicherman/e/B001H6SA4Y, or click here.
Click here to hear Jim's audio essay, To the Class of 2010, from the Class of 1912