Movement

Clara Bingham is an award-winning journalist and the author of Witness to the Revolution, Women on the Hill, and the cowriter of Class Action. A former Washington, DC, correspondent for Newsweek, her writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, The Guardian, and The Daily Beast, among others. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

"Rollicking good fun...in this deftly arranged collection of remembrances, anecdotes, explications and arguments, the 10 years leading up to the Roe v. Wade decision were downright exhilarating."—New York Times "This is precisely why books such as The Movement are necessary, as many of the battles of the second wave are no longer as antiquated as they may have seemed just a few years ago... Both to combat the historical amnesia that makes things like the tradwife possible, as well as to further complicate and expand upon the history of feminism’s second wave, books like The Movement remain important and impressive achievements."—Guardian "Remarkably comprehensive and layered, at once a gripping story that flows from lush symphony to glorious din, and also an invaluable historical record of a world-changing time. It is a book that I suspect will be cracked open for decades to come, and will prove indispensable to feminists, historians, and anyone else seeking to understand the history of women’s rights in America. It’s also a new story about a familiar time, one that shatters stereotypes about second-wave feminists and details a movement as movements really are: diffuse, dynamic, contested, fundamentally righteous, sometimes misguided, frequently painful, and often wonderfully fun."—Jill Filipovic, Democracy Journal "A compulsively readable oral history and a timely addition to the historical literature...utterly engrossing."—Washington Monthly "[A] stunning oral history of the era’s women’s rights movement…Readers will be electrified.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review "A fascinating oral history of the women’s movement from 1963 to 1973, a decade when so much progress was made and so much more seemed just beyond the horizon."—Parade, "Best New Book Releases This Month" “A vivid contribution to women’s history.”—Kirkus "Bingham celebrates the women who brought about change. Ranging across politics, health, employment, sports, and the arts, and including BIPOC and LGBTQ+ voices, this compilation effectively recreates a momentous decade."—Booklist "Clara Bingham has given the world an indispensable new book that belongs on the shelf of every American woman—part history, part encyclopedia of a time, and an absolute page-turning drama, all in one."—Sally Jenkins, Washington Post sports columnist and author of The Right Call: What Sports Teach Us About Work and Life and The Real All Americans "Read this book! Bingham gives us the gift of private conversations with the extraordinary women who forged our own path to power."—Katty Kay, New York Times bestselling author of The Confidence Code “In this meticulously researched, beautifully assembled oral history, Clara Bingham offers us the first truly comprehensive account of the women’s movement, underscoring its inextricable links to the Civil Rights cause and the vital role played by activists of color. In so doing, The Movement restores voices often lost to history, and gives center stage to the unsung “sheroes” and “heroes” of the fight for gender equality. White and Black, Latin-X and Asian, straight and queer are all included in this spellbinding portrait of a revolutionary time and a quintessentially American struggle. The Movement is a vital book and necessary corrective in our own era of national fracture, historic amnesia and outright erasure.”—Susan Fales-Hill, Executive Producer, And Just Like That and author of Always Wear Joy  “Clara Bingham’s The Movement gives us such fascinating personal revelations, the unvarnished views of how the women’s movement got started in the actual voices of the women (and men) who began it all. There is so much insight and explanation here, from the historic Presidential campaign of black Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, to how Title IX got slipped into an education bill to the feuds among the 'purists' versus the pragmatists that sheds light on why women today still have a long way to go to achieve real equality.”—Maureen Orth, Special Correspondent, Vanity Fair  “With her journalist’s ear and historian’s eye, Clara Bingham has collected the voices of diverse change agents, who narrate the story of seismic change in America, in the early years of the modern women’s movement. Her book is an engaging read and an important primary source.”—Elisabeth Griffith, PhD, author of Formidable: American Women and the Fight for Equality, 1920-2020 and Substack’s “Pink Threads” “‘How do you describe a period in history when the consciousness of millions of people fundamentally changed?’ Clara Bingham asks in The Movement: How Women’s Liberation Transformed America 1963-1973. As a reporter who covered that movement, I expected Bingham’s sweeping oral history to be as illuminating and inspiring as it certainly is—but I did not expect it to plunge me into paroxysms of grief and rage or leave me with such a powerful mixture of heartbreak and renewed resolve. Through the voices of political, social, legal, and cultural leaders from a wide range of backgrounds, Bingham delivers an indispensable record of the visionaries who fought so hard to win basic human rights, as well as a chilling reminder of how fierce the resistance was—and still is. With many of those rights once again imperiled, The Movement provides an electrifying blueprint for how determined women can, and do, change the entire world.”—Leslie Bennetts, author of Last Girl Before Freeway “Nobody burned a bra and it wasn't just White feminism. Having lived and covered the modern Women's Movement, I welcome Clara Bingham’s compelling book, an enlightening record for new generations. And a chilling reminder of rights still under attack today. This is invaluable living history.”—Lynn Sherr, journalist, author, feminist historian "The old adage about being condemned to repeat the history that we don't know could not ring more true than it does right now. The Movement feels like just the recalling and reclaiming needed in this precarious moment for women's rights. It reminds us that we have had our backs up against higher and harder walls before and the collective strength, will and tenacity of women pulled us over those obstacles and through those times. I'm excited for this generation to have a roadmap with real stories of trials and triumph for guidance."—Tarana Burke, Activist, Author, and Founder of the ‘me too.’ Movement “Who better to bear witness to this period of feminism than the remarkable activists who lived it? I will return to this book again and again. It feeds my soul. Clara Bingham has given us a gift for a lifetime.”—Dolen Perkins-Valdez, novelist and author of Take My Hand "The Movement is essential reading for anyone who aims to learn firsthand from a diverse group of leaders, believers, trailblazers of the feminist movement, but more importantly shows the lessons we must retain to keep fighting for gender equality, now more than ever." —Mini Timmaraju, President and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All