Many people have heard one particular story about Helen Keller—how the saintly teacher, Annie Sullivan, put one of her deafblind student's hands under the flow of a water pump, and fingerspelled "W-A-T-E-R" into the other. In doing so, she introduced Keller to language and rescued her from a life of isolation. This narrative, while inspirational, is also highly oversimplified, and the focus on it has overshadowed the remarkable life Helen Keller went on to live. Max Wallace's fascinating book After the Miracle: The Political Crusades of Helen Keller introduces readers to a passionate woman whose actual beliefs and choices have often been ignored in favor of the anecdote from her youth.

The book begins by examining the context of the "miracle" story. Wallace provides an overview of the state of education for the deaf and blind at the time of Keller's childhood, including ...