Women Who Invented the Sixties

Steve Golin taught history at Kansas State University and Bloomfield College. As a scholar, he combines his training in the history of ideas with his interest in social history. A lifelong activist, he focuses his writing on social movements.

Golin's book would be a beneficial addition to social work history, policy, and welfare courses. As he signals in this book, historians have grappled with making sense of the transition from the 1950s to 1960s to the eras that have followed. Yet, Golin offers his audience a unique way to engage with the 1950s and 1960s by sharing not only vital information about the lives of these four key activists but also about the impact they each had on a pivotal social movement that they helped shape. Golin bookends his analysis by sharing his hope that future generations of activists will listen and learn from the work of Baker, Jacobs, Carson, and Friedan and their organizing efforts that were so impactful.--Molly C. Driessen "Affilia: Feminist Inquiry in Social Work" Viewed from this perspective Baker, Jacobs, Carson and Friedan served as role models for those who continue to challenge the status quo in the quest for a better world. In his thoughtful study, Golin gives them the credit they earned.--Robert D. Parmet "New York Labor History Association" Steve Golin has written an engaging book on an important topic--how the 1950s became the 1960s. He has done so by focusing on four women--Ella Baker, Rachel Carson, Betty Friedan, and Jane Jacobs--in a collective biography in which he skillfully compares and contrasts their lives, ideologies, and careers.--Daniel Horowitz, author of Betty Friedan and the Making of "The Feminine Mystique" The American Left, the Cold War, and Modern Feminism Women Who Invented the Sixties highlights the seismic shifts women brokered during the midcentury, revealing the power of individual women pushing ahead in the areas of their own passion and interest, and the ways that bring them into larger movements and conversations for change.--Ansley L. Quiros, author of God with Us: Lived Theology and the Freedom Struggle in Americus, Georgia, 1942-1976