Visionary Women

November 15, 2017

Rachel Carson fought for the environment and Jane Jacobs for livable cities; Jane Goodall shows us the link between humans and animals and Alice Waters how to eat well. Barnet (All-Night Party) reveals how these women helped launch the modern progressive movement. With a 40,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 1, 2018
Barnet maps the shared ethos that propelled four visionaries whose efforts alerted people to the dangers of unbridled technology, consumerism, and industrial assaults against nature and the human ecosystem, and who offered a new, more holistic way to think about the world, and a more benign way of living in it. Founding modern environmentalist Rachel Carson, city advocate and master strategist Jane Jacobs, born naturalist and primate expert turned global ambassador for the living world Jane Goodall, and Alice Walker, a natural collaborator and pioneering organic restaurateur and sustainability activist, were or are acutely observant and intuitive, recognizing the crucial interconnectedness of life, cherishing beauty, and understanding the deep significance of community. Raised by intellectually nurturing mothers, all four original thinkers and risk-takers can be described as impassioned and tenacious, sharply attuned to the threats of their time, and deeply concerned about the future. With both resonant detail and purposeful distillation, Barnet tells their dramatic stories within the context of the counterculture of 50 years ago, charts the ongoing vitality and influence of their compassionate visions, and asks if we will yet accomplish what these four accidental revolutionaries call on us to do to preserve the web of life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)