Simon & Schuster Audio, 2026. 6 hours, 52 minutes.
Review written July 20, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
This book takes Rebecca's 2018 book for adults: Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger, updates it for 2026, and directs it to teen girls, to encourage them to use their anger to fight injustice.
Angry Girls Will Get Us Through points out that the Declaration of Independence was fueled by anger - as evidenced by the list of grievances it includes. But that anger - from white men - has always been more acceptable than anger coming from women or any other group.
From there, this is a book of history, a history of how women channeled their anger, through all the years of American history, to make a difference.
An obviously large topic was the fight for women to get the vote, but women of the time also worked for abolition and for temperance. The author makes the point that the temperance movement was mainly to protect women from alcoholic husbands - and outlawing alcohol was a more feasible goal at the time than changing the laws around marriage that gave men complete control over their wives.
But then the book looks at more modern times, at the first women to run for president and be in Congress. How even in modern times, a woman shedding tears, even angry ones, could ruin her chances of winning elections, and how Hillary Clinton and women like her had to always be careful of how they expressed what in a man would be called "passion."
And then it brings us to the present day, including the second election of Donald Trump. We get the encouraging news that Hillary Clinton's defeat and the Women's March prompted a new wave of women entering politics. We hear about the effects of Black Lives Matter and the Me Too Movement. I was disappointed that the Epstein files were not mentioned, but that is even still unresolved, so I can understand leaving it out.
By the end of the book, despite my upbringing that anger is an emotion good people avoid, I was convinced: Anger at injustice can lead to good things, good that can reach many more people.
I hope that young women who read or listen to this book will take that message to heart. For that matter, I hope I will take this message to heart and not be as quick to stuff down anger at injustices I hear about in the news.
