Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘Hotbed’ by Joanna Scutts, a fascinating look at (as it is subtitled) ‘Bohemian New York and the Secret Club that Sparked Modern Feminism’.
Thanks to Random Things Tours for my place on the tour and for my copy of the book in exchange for an honest review – opinions are all my own!
This book was published in hardback by Duckworth on 14th July, 2022.
From the Publisher:
New York City, 1912. The very idea of feminism is radical and outlandish, but a group of women believe they can change the world. They meet in a bustling Greenwich Village restaurant and give their club a name that enshrines the notion of difference of opinion: Heterodoxy.
Among themselves, the women could talk freely—no topic off limits—and plan their liberation without fear of a man labelling them difficult or strident. The group quickly grew: there were pairs of sisters and pairs of lovers; women entwined by family and marriage; and those who had studied together, worked together, and marched side by side for the vote.
However, the history of Heterodoxy remains elusive. To allow each other space to disagree, the women kept no records of their meetings. In Hotbed, Joanna Scutts unravels the never-before-told story of this secretive, unruly club by exploring the lives of its members. Socialites and socialists; playwrights and scientists; actresses, activists and revolutionaries—these extraordinary, fervent women spearheaded the feminist movement and transformed an international feminist agenda into a modern way of life.
“A must-read for anyone seriously interested in feminism, feminist history, and the power of the city to help women change their lives.” LAUREN ELKIN, author of ‘Flâneuse’
“A vibrant tale of the radical political and social activism swirling through New York City’s Greenwich Village in the early 20th century…. Scutts’s comprehensive account skilfully situates Heterodoxy’s members at the forefront of the era’s most important movements for change and renders lively portraits of suffrage parades, labour strikes, and birth control advocacy. This feminist history shines.” PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY
“An enlightening contribution to the history of feminism.” KIRKUS
My Review:
I’ll admit that my knowledge of feminist history was very much UK-focused. I’m quite au fait with British suffragettes and events – Pankhursts, Emily Davison and the King’s horse, hunger strikes and the Cat and Mouse Act, and all that. However, I’d not really paused for thought about their American sisters – so this is why I was delighted to be invited to join the blog tour for ‘Hotbed’.
This book focuses on the early days of Heterodoxy, an all-female social club that first met in New York’s Greenwich Village in 1912. Notes from the meetings do not exist, so Scutts instead deals with the lives of the individual members and the various issues they were passionate about. Although their common ground was women’s rights and suffrage, the other issues on the table often overlapped with feminist concerns – labour rights, birth control, pacifism, racism, sex, psychoanalysis, to name a few. Indeed, Heterodoxy thrived on a wide range of perspectives and opinions and often navigated some touchy subjects and disagreements.
It’s evident that this approach is a forerunner of modern intersectional feminism – a lot of the club’s members recognised that different aspects of female identity cannot be isolated. Hence, they recognised that the fight for women’s rights also needed to consider (for example) race, class and sexuality – and Scutts uses these topics to structure the chapters for her book, introducing us to the key players and the contemporary events.
Personally, I found the separation of the issues both helpful and interesting. I enjoyed that I could read a chapter on labour rights (including some shocking descriptions of conditions for working-class women in various textile factories and the tragedy of the fires that took lives) and then a chapter on Black activism (as a response to racial double standards and lynchings of Black men who were stereotyped as predatory towards to white women while white men freely took advantage of Black women). We move from feminist art to pacifist approaches to World War I, arguments about Freud to the controversy of birth control education. Each chapter is highly impactful and engrossing.
I also loved that the book introduced a whole host of inspiring and amazing women. While some might be considered extremely problematic in modern terms (eugenics, anyone?!), each is recognised for their input in moving the feminist cause forwards. In particular, I was fascinated by the tragic story of Inez Milholland, a glamorous, vocal and extremely active member of Heterodoxy who contributed so much in her short life span. I need to read more about her! Rose Pastor Stokes proved another highlight – a Jewish woman who married a rich man and used her status to support female factory workers. Plus Mary Ware Dennett, a single mother of two sons whose frank sex advice got her writing banned. To be honest, I could have easily picked twenty more examples.
This is the kind of book that you’ll want to come back to again and again – it’s actually a bit overwhelming to read it in one hit because there are so many names and acronyms and events to keep up with! The only one of the women that I was aware of before reading this book was Charlotte Perkins Gilman, author of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, so this covered a lot of new ground for me.
There are a good number of black and white pictures included in the book, something I also found really engaging. It was lovely to see some of the women being discussed. I’d really like to have seen even more – more photos, more paintings, more feminist illustrations, maybe even some contemporary news reports? I realise that this would make an expensive and deluxe edition, but these women are absolutely worth it!
This is an important and extensively researched book – I really did feel that this was a labour of love for Scutts and the list of references at the end is mind-boggling. It seems that no stone was left unturned, resulting in a comprehensive look at American feminism of the 1910s. Scutts has turned a huge, amorphous, diverse subject into something controlled and eminently readable – and it is an absolute treat for those interested in feminist history.
About the Author:
Joanna Scutts is a literary critic, historian and the author of ‘The Extra Woman’. She has written for the ‘New York Times’, ‘Washington Post’ and ‘The New Yorker’. She has also written a series for the ‘Paris Review’, ‘Feminize Your Canon’, exploring the lives of underrated and under-read female authors. Raised in London and educated at Cambridge and Sussex universities, she gained her PhD from Columbia University and lives in New York.
If you’d like a copy of this book, please use my affiliate link below – thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases.
Thanks for the blog tour support x