Hotbed Bohemian Greenwich Village and the secret club that sparked modern feminism

Literary critic Scutts (The Extra Woman) delivers a vibrant tale of the radical political and social activism swirling through New York City's Greenwich Village in the early 20th century. She focuses on the Heterodoxy Club, launched in 1912 by suffragist Marie Jenney Howe as a place for "unruly and individualistic" women to freely debate such issues as women's suffrage, socialism, workers' rights, and antilynching campaigns. Heterodoxy had no bylaws, written rules, meeting minutes, or programs or projects. Scutts creates indelible portraits of influential members including "The Yellow Wallpaper" author Charlotte Perkins Gilman, suffragist Inez Milholland, lawyer and ACLU cofounder Crystal Eastman, antilynching advocate Grace Nail Johnson (the only Black woman in Heterodoxy), and labor activists Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Rose Pastor Stokes. When WWI began in 1914, debates over pacifism drove a wedge into Heterodoxy's camaraderie, while passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920 sparked disagreements about the future of women's rights and the meaning of feminism. Scutts's comprehensive account skillfully situates Heterodoxy's members at the forefront of the era's most important movements for change and renders lively portraits of suffrage parades, labor strikes, and birth control advocacy. This feminist history shines. Illus. (June)

Heterodoxy was a feminist club which met at the beginning of the 20th century in Greenwich Village. Although the contents of the meetings are largely unknown, many of Heterodoxy's members played significant roles in social movements at the time. Scutts (The Extra Woman) describes significant social issues and the roles that Heterodoxy's members played in their advocacy. Subjects such as women's suffrage, worker's rights, motherhood, marriage, sex, and the anti-war movement are addressed. Scutts also profiles activists such as Inez Milholland, Rose Pastor Stokes, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Marie Jenney Howe. Although many women embodied traditional political organizer roles, others engaged with their chosen issue through art, and Scutts looks at the impact of activist art. The majority of Heterodoxy's members were well-off, educated white women, and Scutts also highlights the effect of race, sexual orientation and class on feminist circles. Finally, Scutts assesses the changing nature of feminism and activism following the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. VERDICT A fascinating view of feminist activism at the beginning of the 20th century.--Rebekah Kati

A social history of the downtown New York City club that nurtured the modern feminist movement. Historian and literary critic Scutts, author of The Extra Woman: How Marjorie Hillis Led a Generation of Women To Live Alone and Like It, captivatingly explores Heterodoxy, the little-known social club whose members helped define feminism in the early 1900s. Formed in Greenwich Village in 1912 by Marie Jenney Howe, the group had 25 charter members, known as Heterodites. The membership eventually grew to more than 100 before it disbanded in the early 1940s. The author focuses on the period "from 1912 until the early 1920s, which was also the heyday of this particular incarnation of Greenwich Village as America's countercultural epicenter." Among the topics and causes the members of this invited group of women discussed were art, psychology, racial justice, and women's rights, which included access to birth control, sexual autonomy, and the ability to work outside the home. As Scutts explains, members of Heterodoxy felt "suffrage was only a small part of the larger issue of women's emancipation." In an effort to clear up misconceptions regarding the meaning of feminism, Howe also held two public forums that were largely attended by men who felt they had a vested interest in women's social position. Scutts also profiles the compelling lives of many of the members of Heterodoxy, revealing both their diverse backgrounds and their like-minded political and social interests. Perhaps the most important contribution of Heterodoxy was the sense of camaraderie it offered its members for expressing their ideas. These powerful bonds would provide continued shape and meaning to their lives. "If there is hope to be found for feminism today…it has to lie in the way we come together, to reexamine the past and redefine the future," writes the author. "There is more awareness than ever of the ways that women, together, can create change and how much we have to learn from listening to their stories." An enlightening contribution to the history of feminism. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.