Early 20th century writer, journalist, and activist, who learned how to read, write, and even talk in spite of being born deaf and dumb. Keller spent most of her adult life fighting for socialist causes—she supported the Soviet Union in its early days, and challenged the American government to provide fair compensation for its workers. Loewen cites Keller—whose childhood is familiar to most American students, but whose adult career is utterly foreign to most—as an example of how history textbooks gloss over the most controversial, and exciting, facts about the lives of historical figures.