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This group of engrossing biographies focuses on people whose accomplishments have spear-headed a major shift in the American consciousness. Individual stories are combined with sociological information and insights into 20th-century America.

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Booklist Review

Gr. 6-12. The New Directions series about famous twentieth-century Americans focuses on their role in society and their influence on popular culture and politics. The Carson volume is a lucid, enthusiastic appreciation of the woman, her work as biologist and writer, and her enduring legacy. With several page-long excerpts from Carson's own writing, Henricksson shows how she wrote about science with precision and poetry. Today's young environmentalists will be enthralled by dramas like the horrifying DDT discoveries and by her lyrical depiction of the interconnections in the natural world. This biography makes you want to read more of Carson--especially her classics, The Sea around Us and Silent Spring--and the detailed, unobtrusive source notes make that easy. In contrast, the Steinem volume is turgid in style, superficial about both Steinem and feminism. Except for the photographs (unseen in galley), this offers little more than the essay in Current Biography, which appears to be its main source. Kids will get more from Steinem's own painfully honest memoir, "Ruth's Song (Because She Could Not Sing It)." The Cosby volume is better written, though sometimes inflated in tone ("Cosby had a vision . . . "). Rosenberg describes Cosby's experience growing up black and briefly summarizes the civil rights movement. What enlivens the account are the examples of Cosby's hilarious routines and one-liners. The talk about changing comedy styles and the role of humor in relation to social issues is fascinating for what it says about show business and about race. Fans will enjoy the insights into Cosby's hugely successful style, which stresses what the races have in common rather than their differences. The Presley book is the most entertaining, capturing the "flash" of Elvis and his music, "fast and wild and open to possibilities." Rubel is frank about Elvis' excesses and admits that he wasn't a very good guitar player and that he didn't even write his own songs, but the focus is on his tensions and contradictions: "He was a tough guy and also a mama's boy," aggressive and sexy and noisy. There's quite a lot here about the history of rock and roll--Elvis was a white boy singing black, his music rooted in country and blues--as well as his connection with the new power of teenagers in the postwar boom: "He was the symbol of a youth that spoke its own language, had its own heroes, and cared little for the standards of its parents' generation." The author's candid, colloquial account will make readers think about the teenage culture they take for granted. Each book includes a chronology, bibliography, and chapter notes to direct quotes; indexes and lots of photographs to come. ~--Hazel Rochman