Overlooked by historians for over half a century following her death, Ernestine L. Rose (1810 1892) was one of the foremost orators and social reformers of her era. A fearless human rights activist, she fought for racial equality, women's rights, freethought and religious freedom, and she can be considered a forerunner of twentieth-century activists in civil rights and the women's movement. Rose was a pioneer in many movements, articulating the notion that all Americans are endowed with natural rights guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence and by the Constitution. Her passion was to see everyone women and men, regardless of race, religion or ethnic origin possessing the civil rights promised by American democracy. Unlike other nineteenth-century female reformers such as Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ernestine Rose was the only non-Christian, foreign-born woman. For this reason, she did not entirely fit in and she felt tensions within the women's rights and abolitionist circles, as nativism and anti-Semitism worsened in the United States. Rose's outspoken opinions put her at odds with the religious zeal of the American public as well as that of many reformers. A visionary leader, she crisscrossed two continents to fight for change, seeking to raise public awareness of international issues and of social movements in Europe and in the United States. The topic of this book is highly relevant to current struggles for racial justice and for preserving and strengthening democracy in the United States. Rose's words are as pertinent today as they were during her lifetime. This book offers a new understanding of Ernestine Rose's important contributions to American democracy.

Hiding in Plain Sight: Eluding the Nazis in Occupied France is an unusual memoir about the childhood and young adulthood of Sarah Lew Miller. Born in a large Orthodox Jewish family in Dereczyn, Poland, Sarah's family moved to Paris in 1937 to escape poverty. The German Occupation of France just three years later threatened her family's existence with repressive anti-Jewish laws and massive deportations of Jews to death camps. With the help of Christian neighbours, they evaded arrest for several years in Paris by living undercover beginning in July, 1942. After Sarah's mother was arrested and then rescued, Sarah's parents went into deep hiding, while their eight children found refuge in rural villages scattered around France. Through the help of a French Resistance organisation, the Sixieme, Sarah escaped to Switzerland in May, 1944 and her entire family was reunited in Paris after the Liberation in 1945. This personal and historical account of an era conveys the day-to-day life of a teenage girl living in Nazi-occupied France with the ever-present threat of death. Despite her loneliness, hardships and the derailment of her childhood dreams, she kept her strong family ties and maintained her faith in humanity. This memoir demonstrates the qualities of resilience and courage that enabled individuals and families such as Sarah's to survive. By reliving one family's way of coping with a social and political crisis, we learn about ourselves and our own society.