Meet the Unsung Women Who Shaped American History
Posted on July 3, 2026
by Adrienne A
Behind many of history’s defining moments are influential women whose contributions deserve to be remembered. Meet some of them here.
harriet tubman by Jean Marie Wiesen
A fresh portrait of this iconic American-and the first to involve a Tubman family member since Harriet herself was interviewed in 1886.
the movement by Clara Bingham
For lovers of both Barbie and Gloria Steinem, The Movement is the first oral history of the decade that built the modern feminist movement. Through the captivating individual voices of the people who lived it, The Movement tells the intimate inside story of what it felt like to be at the forefront of the modern feminist crusade, when women rejected thousands of years of custom and demanded the freedom to be who they wanted and needed to be. This engaging history traces women's awakening, organizing, and agitating between the years of 1963 and 1973, when a decentralized collection of people and events coalesced to create a spontaneous combustion.
american flygirl by Susan Tate Ankeny
This story of the first Asian American woman to earn a pilot’s license details how she overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles of prejudice and sexism to fly for the United States military during World War II.
we the women by Norah O'Donnell
Over a decades-long, distinguished career ... journalist Norah O'Donnell has made it her mission to shed light on untold women's stories. Now, in honor of America's 250th birthday, O'Donnell focuses that passion on the American heroines who helped change the course of history. ... Through extensive research and interviews, as well as historical documents and old photos, O'Donnell curates a ... portrait of these fierce fighters for freedom.
unbroken by Angela Sterritt
As a Gitxsan teenager navigating life on the streets, Angela Sterritt wrote in her journal to help her survive and find her place in the world. Now an acclaimed journalist, she writes for major news outlets to push for justice and to light a path for Indigenous women, girls, and survivors. In her brilliant debut, Sterritt shares her memoir alongside investigative reporting into cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada, showing how colonialism and racism led to a society where Sterritt struggled to survive as a young person, and where the lives of Indigenous women and girls are ignored and devalued.
queen of all mayhem by Dane Huckelbridge
On February 3, 1889, just two days shy of her forty-first birthday, Myra Maybelle Shirley-better known at that point by her outlaw sobriquet Belle Starr was blown from her horse saddle and killed by a pair of shotgun blasts, delivered by an unseen assailant, only a few miles away from her home in the Indian Territory of present-day Oklahoma. Thus ended the life of one of the most colorful, authentic, and dangerous women in the history of the American West.
banished citizens by Marla Andrea Ramirez
From 1920 through the mid-1940s, the US and Mexican governments colluded in the banishment of a million Mexican Americans, mostly US citizen women and children. Marla Ramirez explores the effects of "repatriation" on the exiles and their descendants, showing how forced removal permanently deprived them of legal rights and family property.
the improbable victoria woodhull by Eden Collinsworth
From the acclaimed author of What the Ermine Saw and Behaving Badly, a portrait of Victoria Woodhull, a celebrated and maligned 19th century businesswoman and activist and a leader in the fight for women's suffrage and labor reforms. Born dirt-poor in an obscure Ohio settlement, Woodhull was the daughter of an illiterate mother entranced by the fad of Mesmerism-a therapeutic pseudoscience-and a swindler father whose cons exploited his two daughters. It was through her mother, though, that Woodhull familiarized herself with the supernatural realm, earning a degree of fame as a clairvoyant and her first taste of financial success. She co-founded a successful stock brokerage on Wall Street, launched a newspaper, and became the first woman to run for president.
queenie by Elizabeth Colomba
Queenie follows the life of Stephanie Saint-Clair-the infamous criminal who made herself a legend in Harlem in the 1930s. Born on a plantation in the French colony of Martinique, Saint-Clair left the island in 1912 and found success in New York, rising up through poverty and battling extreme racism to become the ruthless queen of Harlem's mafia and a fierce defender of the Black community.
glitz, glam, and a damn good time by Jennifer Wright
Marion Graves Anthon Fish, known by the nicknames "Mamie" and "The Fun-Maker," threw the most epic parties in American history. This Gilded Age icon brought it all: lavish decor; A-list invitees; booze; pranks; and large animal guest stars. If you were a member of New York high society in the Peak Age of Innocence Era, you simply had to be on Mamie Fish's guest list. Mamie Fish understood that people didn't just need the formality of prior generations - they needed wit and whimsy. Make no mistake, however: Mamie Fish's story is about so much more than partying. In Glitz, Glam, and a Damn Good Time, readers will learn all about how Fish and her friends shaped the line of history, exerting their influence on business, politics, family relationships, and social change through elaborate social gatherings.
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