About this item
A vivid social history that brings to light the "girl stunt reporters" of the Gilded Age who went undercover to expose corruption and abuse in America, and redefined what it meant to be a woman and a journalist - pioneers whose influence continues to be felt today.In the waning years of the nineteenth century, women journalists across the United States risked reputation and their own safety to expose the hazardous conditions under which many Americans lived and worked. In various disguises, they stole into sewing factories to report on child labor, fainted in the streets to test public hospital treatment, posed as lobbyists to reveal corrupt politicians. Inventive writers whose in-depth narratives made headlines for weeks at a stretch, these "girl stunt reporters" changed laws, helped launch a labor movement, championed women's rights, and redefined journalism for the modern age.
About the Author
Kim Todd is an award-winning science and environmental writer.Her first book, Tinkering with Eden, a Natural History of Exotics in America (W.W. Norton 2001) , tells the stories of non-native species and how they arrived in the United States. Species covered range from pigeons, brought over by some of the earliest colonists, to starlings, imported by a man who wanted to bring all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare to Central Park. The book explores our developing understanding of exotic species as we become more aware of the potential problems they may pose for native ecosystems. Tinkering with Eden received the PEN/ Jerard Award and the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award and was selected as one of Booklist's Top Ten Science/ Technical Books for 2001. Her second book Chrysalis, Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis (Harcourt, 2007) looks at the life of a pioneering explorer/ naturalist who traveled to South America in 1699 to study insect metamorphosis. The story also traces ideas about metamorphosis through time. The New Yorker called it a "spellbinding biography," and Kirkus Reviews said Chrysalis was "a breathtaking example of scholarship and storytelling." It was selected as one of 25 "Books to Remember" for 2008 by the New York Public Library. Research for Chrysalis led her to Surinam to retrace Merian's steps through the rain forest. Her most recent book is Sparrow (Reaktion 2012) . Part of Reaktion Books much praised "Animal Series," Sparrow explores at the history and natural history of this much loved, much hated bird.Her work has also appeared in the anthologies Two in the Wild (Vintage 1999) , City Birds (Stackpole 2003) , Torn, True Stories of Kids, Career, and the Conflict of Modern Motherhood (Coffeetown, 2011) , and The Pacific Crest Trailside Reader (Mountaineers Books, 2001) . She has hiked much of the Pacific Crest Trail through Washington State, and hopes to do the whole thing some day.She has lectured extensively about Merian, invasive species, and the intersection of history and biology, including talks at the Getty Museum, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the Denver Botanical Gardens, and Wellesley College. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two children. Please visit her web site at www.kimtodd.net.
