The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, From the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement

The Small and the Mighty is a collection of stories about people who changed the course of American history despite lacking the institutional power that many better-known historical figures enjoyed. McMahon presents a number of stories about Americans who worked through great adversity to create lasting change, even if they were later forgotten by history. She argues that the United States was brought into being by people who worked to overcome inequality and injustice and that Americans today have the responsibility of making sure the nation continues to embody its founding principles of justice, peace, goodness, and freedom.

McMahon opens The Small and the Mighty with a story about Gouverneur Morris, a largely forgotten Founding Father who was responsible for penning “some of the most consequential words in world history”: the Preamble of the United States Constitution, which begins, “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union” and goes on to articulate justice, peace, goodness, and freedom as the new country’s founding principles (6). McMahon emphasizes the personal challenges and character flaws that stood in the way of Morris’s political career. He was disabled and used a wooden prosthetic leg, and his serial philandering damaged his reputation. For McMahon, what is most important about Morris is that he was “flawed and complicated”—a person, not a mythic hero.