Writing the Wrongs

Reviews / Votes

Eva Valesh slipped into historical obscurity in part because she left no significant body of private papers and because much of her public writing was unsigned. Through dogged research to uncover the scattered remaining sources, Elizabeth Faue recaptures this important figure and seeks to draw larger meanings from her life and career about class and gender politics of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

- Elizabeth Fones-Wolf, West Virginia University (The Journal of American History) Faue helps us understand Valesh's iconoclastic career in the context of the masculine worlds of journalism, politics, and labor reform, which offered women such limited and difficult choices. Moreover, she provides an excellent overview of the issues facing labor and American society during a crucial time.

- K. Fones-Wolf, West Virginia University (Choice) Elizabeth Faue has told a remarkable story, one with implications that extend well beyond Eva Valesh. Eva Valesh's remarkable story shows what is possible in a society open to talent. But her life also shows the compromises that may be demanded of even a remarkably talented child of the working class.

- Gerald Friedman, UMass-Amherst (EH.NET) Like a 19th century Barbara Ehrenreich, Valesh was hired by the St. Paul Globe to do undercover reporting on working women who were the 'Nickel and Dimed' of her time. The series was published under the pen name of 'Eva Gay,' when Valesh was only 22, and 'introduced readers to the lives of garment workers, laundresses, cigar-makers, seamstresses, domestics, operatives in woolen knitting mills and boot and shoe factories, telephone and telegraph operators, bookbinders, stenographers, and shop women.' Her accounts helped spark the interest of labor advocates and middle-class reformers, stressing that 'the appalling conditions under which most women workers were amenable to change'-if the 'working girls' themselves took action on their own behalf.

- Steve Early (The Guild Reporter) This book is an excellent model for the scholar trying to balance nutrient-rich research with an engaging writing style. It also is an excellent model for the scholar linking a particular journalist to a specific historic moment or movement. And, by the way, it is an absolutely fascinating read and a stellar contribution to the field of labor journalism.... Faue has effectively reclaimed the story of a forgotten journalist and, in doing so, has contributed significantly once again to the field of labor journalism.... Faue deserves a hearty salute.

- Cheryl Heckler, Miami University (Journalism History)