Book Review: Sensational
I have been reading a lot of books lately that highlight the forgotten histories of people who are only now getting recognized. The latest book I read was Sensational: The Hidden History of America’s Girl Stunt Reporters by Kim Todd, which focuses on pioneering women journalists at the turn of the 20th century. When I was in journalism school, I only learned about Nelly Bly. Even though Bly broke down barriers for women in media, because she was doing her work during the height of the “yellow journalism” era, she is not always seen as a “serious” journalist.
But history has been kinder to these reporters’ legacy and this book successfully highlights the women who helped launch a new kind of investigative journalism. Their “stunt reporting” led to societal reform in the workplace and gender equality. The book talks about Bly’s investigation into patient rights at an asylum, Ida B. Wells’s anti-lynching and women’s suffrage campaigns, and the “Girl Reporter” who exposed doctors and midwives who performed illegal abortions. I also appreciated the profile of Victoria Earle Matthews, a black reporter turned community activist who founded a settlement home to help Black girls from the South find their footing in New York City.
In many journalism circles today, this type of reporting is still frowned upon, but some of the best journalism lately has come from female journalists doing just this type of work, Whether it is Gloria Steinem’s investigation into the Playboy club, Barbara Ehrenreich’s book on low-wage workers, Joan Didion’s encounter with a pre-school-age child who was given LSD by her parents, and even Nicole Hannah-Jones’s 1619 Project, today’s women journalists stand on the shoulders of the pioneers featured in this book.