Book Review: After the Miracle

 

After the Miracle

The Political Crusades of Helen Keller

by Max Wallace

Pub Date 11 Apr 2023 | Archive Date 11 May 2023

 Grand Central Publishing 

 Biographies & Memoirs  |  History  |  Nonfiction (Adult)

Grand Central Publishing and Netgalley have provided me with a copy of After the Miracle for review:

The biography of Helen Keller always intrigues me and honestly it is her story that inspired me to pick up a pen and write my own stories.  Therefore, it would be an understatement to say that I was excited to receive After the Miracle.

Raised in Alabama, she sent shockwaves through the South when she announced her opposition to Jim Crow and donated to the NAACP. During World War I, she used her fame to oppose American intervention. In 1933, she spoke out against Hitler's rise to power and supported the anti-fascist cause during the Spanish Civil War. She was one of the first public figures to alert the world to the evils of Apartheid, raising funds to defend Nelson Mandela when he faced the death penalty for High Treason, and she lambasted Joseph McCarthy at the height of the Cold War, while her contemporaries shied away from his notorious witch hunt. The question arises, who was this revolutionary figure?

She was Helen Keller.

In spite of all of this, six decades after her death, African American disability rights activist Anita Cameron stated this in an interview with Newsweekly. 

"Helen Keller is not radical at all, just another despite disabilities privileged white person and yet another example of history telling the story of privileged white Americans."  

As a result of her statement, Senator Ted Cruz and others immediately responded with backlash.

Most mainstream portrayals of Keller focus extensively on her struggles as a deafblind child, portraying her teacher, Annie Sullivan, as a miracle worker. As a result of this narrative-which often has made Keller a secondary character in her own story-few people are aware that her greatest achievement was not learning to speak, but what she did with her voice as soon as she did.

After the Miracle provides a much-needed correction to the antiquated narrative. In this first major biography of Keller in decades, Max Wallace reveals that the lionization of Sullivan at the expense of her famous pupil was no accident, and points out Keller’s contributions as a socialist, a fierce anti-racist, and a progressive disability advocate. While Keller was raised in an era of eugenics and discrimination, she consistently challenged the media's ableist coverage and was the first activist to emphasize the link between disability and capitalism, despite the expectations and prejudices of those closest to her.

As Keller's political crusades are revealed behind a curtain of inspiration from her childhood, After the Miracle finally reveals Keller's entire legacy, as one of the greatest figures of the 20th century.

I give After the Miracle five out of five stars!  

Happy Reading!