Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2020 -

Harriet Tubman (1822-1913) is back in the news lately, with a major motion picture about her life and a controversy over a redesign of the $20 bill featuring her image. Yet, she has never truly fallen from social discourse in the first place, given her astonishing life and accomplishments in rescuing fugitive slaves; serving as a scout, nurse, and caretaker for "contraband" slaves during the Civil War; and tirelessly advocating for downtrodden African Americans. Although her story has been turned into hagiography by many popular authors, in part following Tubman's own embellishments (and those of her first biographers, who confused and exaggerated details), and partly due to the difficulty in remembering details from decades past, a number of recent accomplished historians have brought her story to life in a historically responsible way. This excellent work is a synthesis of that scholarship, presenting Tubman as the fascinating, headstrong, self-sacrificing, physically damaged, financially destitute, and occasionally gullible person that she was in historical reality. One hopes this book will find its way into many classrooms, and that, in better days to come, she will yet appear on our currency.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.