In Review: Inspiring Women

Genius of Common Sense, Glenna Lang and Marjory Wunsch, Boston: David R. Godine, 2009, 128 pages.

Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity and Courage in a World Gone Mad, Frances Moore Lappé, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Small Planet Media, 2007, 208 pages.

How do you change the world? Where do you start, locally or globally? For inspiration and a way out of the paralysis that stymies so many of us, two remarkable­ women – Jane Jacobs and Frances Moore Lappé – offer some practical­ ideas.

Jacobs, the late, great thinker, activist and author, is the subject of a new book written for people aged “10 to 100.” It is the story of how Jacobs’ seminal work, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, came to be written, and what shaped and influenced her life. ...