Marcia Biederman

The best-known educator of the 20th century was a scammer in cashmere. "The most famous reading teacher in the world," as television hosts introduced her, Evelyn Wood had little classroom experience, no degrees in reading instruction, and a background that included work at a Mormon mission in Germany at a time when the church was cooperating with the Third Reich. Nevertheless, a nation spooked by Sputnik and panicked by paperwork eagerly embraced...

"A Mighty Force is the first book dedicated to Dr. Elizabeth O. Hayes's fight for public health on the American home front during World War II, for which she received national attention (and a victory under President Truman's Justice Department) for her protests against unsanitary conditions in the mining town of Force, Pennsylvania"--