Quiet Valor
Everyday Americans: Acts of Character That Changed a Life, a Street, or a Town
Praising the values of resilience and integrity, Quiet Valor is a hopeful social science survey that highlights people’s lasting impacts on their communities.
Larry Nouvel’s uplifting social science survey Quiet Valor spotlights the modest but impactful work of Americans committed to service, generosity, and humility, doing meaningful work with little recognition.
Highlighting the stories of people who answered innate calls to action and exhibited “quiet grit” and “constancy” in their work to strengthen and sustain communities, this book profiles thirty-five individuals and groups for their fidelity to values of courage and kindness. The examples range from historical to contemporary. They include the Evelyn’s Angels program, which engenders self-worth and dignity through storytelling, and the Earn-a-Bike program with Mercy Street Dallas, which works to instill responsibility in children through bike repairs. Elsewhere, a section on preserving cultural memories highlights people who work to keep the history of marginalized communities relevant through storytelling, food, and language. A woman who knits mittens for children during Michigan’s winters is profiled, as is a woman who weaves sweetgrass baskets in South Carolina to preserve her Gullah heritage.
The vignettes are succinct and retrospective, and their prose is lucid and accessible. They are organized into seven distinct sections covering disaster and emergency responses, caregiving, education, civic duty, cultural preservation, advocacy and justice, and everyday generosity. Encompassing profiles of ambition and determination in people seeking avenues to create change and encourage local goodwill, the book exhibits great testimonial breadth.
Crisp reportage mixes with sensory language throughout, as where an early California morning fog is said to brush “the tops of hills” and settle “into valleys where acorns once blanketed the ground.” Elsewhere, a kitchen is described as smelling of “roasted corn and simmering beans.” The profiles are also written in the present tense for immediacy, and respect and admiration for their subjects is pronounced. These decisions complement the book’s effort to showcase humble people who perform good deeds.
However, the book becomes somewhat repetitive as it progresses. Its themes of persistence, determination, and humility are overemphasized in the chapters’ conclusions. There are also jumps in time within individual narratives, slowing their pacing. Further, some of the included examples are overfamiliar, as of grassroots efforts to handle COVID-19 shutdowns and of a teacher who assumed duties beyond the traditional classroom. Further, the profiles are sometimes cursory in nature without expansive details beyond scene-setting ones, though credible data sources are included for support.
A project evincing optimism about grassroots efforts to improve society for all, the social science survey Quiet Valor celebrates small actions with long-lasting impacts.
Reviewed by
Katy Keffer
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
