Writing for Their Lives: America’s Pioneering Female Science Journalists - Softcover

LaFollette, Marcel Chotkowski

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0262048167 ISBN 13: 9780262048163

Publisher: MIT Press, 2023

Synopsis

A breathtaking history of America's trail-blazing female science journalists--and the timely lessons they can teach us about equity, access, collaboration, and persistence. <p/>Writing for Their Lives tells the stories of women who pioneered the nascent profession of science journalism from the 1920s through the 1950s. Like the "hidden figures" of science, such as Dorothy Vaughan and Katherine Johnson, these women journalists, Marcel Chotkowski LaFollette writes, were also overlooked in traditional histories of science and journalism. But, at a time when science, medicine, and the mass media were expanding dramatically, Emma Reh, Jane Stafford, Marjorie Van de Water, and many others were explaining theories, discoveries, and medical advances to millions of readers via syndicated news stories, weekly columns, weekend features, and books--and they deserve the recognition they have long been denied. <p/>Grounded in extensive archival research and enlivened by passages of original correspondence, Writing for Their Lives addresses topics such as censorship, peer review, and news embargoes, while also providing intimate glimpses into the personal lives and adventures of mid-twentieth-century career women. They were single, married, or divorced; mothers with child-care responsibilities; daughters supporting widowed mothers; urban dwellers who lived through, and wrote about, the Great Depression, World War II, and the dawn of the Atomic Age--all the while, daring to challenge the arrogance and misogyny of the male scientific community in pursuit of information that could serve the public. <p/>Written at a time when trust in science is at a premium, Writing for Their Lives is an inspiring untold history that underscores just how crucial dedicated, conscientious journalists are to the public understanding and acceptance of scientific guidance and expertise.

About this title

About the Author

Marcel Chotkowski LaFollette is an independent historian. She is also Research Associate at the Smithsonian Institution Archives and the author of Science on the Air and Science on American Television.

Edition details

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262048167
• ISBN 13: 9780262048163
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 280