The Wrong Title

...The Wrong Subtitle Seven Women: Portraits from the American Radical Tradition By Judith Nies Viking 236 pp $8 95 Reviewed by Donna Arzt Sarah Grmke shared with her sister Angelina the distinction of being the first American woman to write and speak publicly on abolitionism and women's rights Harriet Tubman, a fugitive slave and Civil War scout, led over 300 slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a suffrage leader, abolitionist and author of the Women's Declaration of Rights and other feminist tracts Irish-born "Mother" Jones was a United Mine Workers organizer, an IWW co-founder, and an opponent of child labor who crusaded for workers until she was 100 Charlotte Perkins Gil-man, sociologist, lecturer and leading intellectual of the woman's movement in her day, advocated female economic independence, "kitchenless" homes and day-care centers Anna Louise Strong was a defected journalist, prolific author and self-appointed "ambassador without portfolio" to the Soviet Union and later—after being expelled—to China Dorothy Day, a war resister and poverty fighter, founded the Catholic Worker movement and has been the publisher of its newspaper since 1933 These are the subjects of political speechwnter and journalist Judith Nies' book All seven were feminists in that they actively sought fulfillment in the public arena, but most of them did not champion women's rights For example, Gnmke, GUman and even Stanton believed certain social reforms mattered more than suffrage Mother Jones, in fact, opposed the vote, although she recognized that women had to be organized for political purposes "No strike has ever been won that didn't have the support of the women," she said Having overcome personal adversity and social disapprobation, the seven subjects emerge as heroines Yet the historiography of women should have progressed beyond this point by now What is needed today is insight and criticism—neither of which are provided by Nies, whose portraits are barely as penetrating as the ones found m the encyclopedic Notable American Women, published six years ago by Radchffe College Such banalities as "her weaknesses were the opposite side of her strengths" or "she spoke out of total conviction and she never said what she didn't believe" are typical of the author's level of analysis But Nies' most serious mistake was picking the wrong people to demonstrate her faintly apparent thesis that women must be seen as part of the radical tradition Rather than radicals, her seven could as easily be classified as pioneers (Gnmke and Strong), agitator (Jones), political strategist (Stanton), progressive (Gil-man), and freedom fighter (Tubman) A more condign selection might have mcluded Wobbly-turned-Communist Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, pacifist abolitionist Lydia Maria Child and, of course, anarchist "Red" Emma Goldman While Day is furthest from the mainstream on Nies' list, even her radicalism has been second to her Catholicism The author's cast subverts her m other ways, too She maintains, for instance "Women who would act in public, had to redefine their politics and their personal lives They had to be political and social radicals No matter how radical their ideas or acts, radical men have often been able to live bourgeois domestic lives This is not true of women, excruciating personal choices were involved " Granted that was usually so Nevertheless, as it happens Sarah Gnmke, who never married, moved into her sister's home to keep house and raise three children And Charlotte Gil-man, despite her scandalizing late Victorian New England by divorcing and sending her daughter away with the father, had a domestic life that was as bourgeois as the next woman's, she and her second husband spent their last years tending their garden in Norwich Town, Connecticut Anna Louise Strong left the capitalist U S only to lead a privileged bourgeois life elsewhere, never even joining the Communist party, she merely transplanted her middle-class naivete from West to East Nies could have at least partially compensated for the weakness of her choices by building a theory of their common qualities, or by elucidating the pattern of what she considers to be the female radical tradition Instead, she reduces the "links" binding her characters to coincidence Stanton's husband and Gnmke's brother-in-law attended Gilman's greatgrandfather's seminary, Tubman and Jones both often disguised themselves as hobbling old women to elude enemies, Day and Strong were friends More meaningful would seem to be the fact that all were excellent orators, able to attract large followings in the promotion of their causes Tubman's poetically simple, vivid images of slave life and Jones' strike speeches were matched by the powerful journalism of Day and Gitman Each was to some degree self-educated, and many were strongly influenced by authoritarian fathers—particularly Gnmke and Stanton, whose interest in law stemmed from their fathers being high-ranking judges (Stanton pire told his daughter that she "should have been a boy" if she wanted to become a lawyer ) Another mark of the group, and possibly the most significant one, was having transcended physical and emotional suffering Stanton, Gilman, Strong, and both Gnmke sisters had neurasthemc breakdowns—a frequent occurrence among 19th-century women, though Nies seems unaware of this A white overseer struck 13-year-old Harriet Tubman on the head, leaving her delirious for two months Sarah Gnmke's recovery from her illness led to her important conversion to the Quaker faith Gilman's depression, fictionalized in her bnlhant story "The Yellow Wallpaper," was overcome by taking to the lecture circuit and the presses Young Harriet came out of her delirium convinced that slavery had to be resisted In the chapter on Tubman, Nies does succeed in portraying a human being who experiences frustration and must make difficult decisions, avoiding the isolated, one-dimensional folk-legend image often found in popular accounts of the Civil War Friends, mentors and husbands who played important roles in the lives of the seven are effectively presented as well And the author is to be commended for focusing on Sarah Gnmke rather than her more famous sister, Angelina Still, a seeming lack of any historical perspective prevents Nies from explaining what was unique or typical about Tubman's plantation experiences, and from placing Dorothy Day's proper context in the labor movement and the church What is worse, it produces some exaggerated claims, notably for Strong's articles in reporting the tumultuous events in the Soviet Umon from 1917-19 Less forgivable is the author's mat-tentiveness to language Here is a sample that accomplishes the feat of being redundant and self-contradictory at the same time "In many ways the battle between domesticity and public life which had taken place between Angelina Gnmke and Theodore Weld was to be played out in a different way between Henry and Elizabeth Stanton " One is inclined to be more sympathetic at the outset, when Nies m her Introduction tries to define "radical " It is a difficult task, witness the trouble Garry Wills had in his Introduction to Lilhan Hellman's Scoundrel Time "The radical hates vicious and harmful people while the ideologue hates heretical ideas " Nies, in her groping, tells us that radicals "see differently," that "they go to the roots of our social beliefs " But she neglects to examine the one element that would best indicate where her heroines stood their ideas With the exception of Day, those of the others who actually had a coherent philosophy were essentially reformist rather than revolutionary Their energy, optimism and faith in the future was characteristically American In short, Portraits from the American Activist Tradition would have been a more apt subtitle for this book...