The Equivalents: The Untold Story of the Five Friends Who Started a Personal, Political, and Artistic Revolution

"Doherty, despite suggesting that bridging the two spheres is doable with some financial assistance and mutual goodwill, sidesteps the possibility of happy compromise right in her introduction, even before she starts laying out her argument."

"After their Radcliffe idyll ended, the friendships were attenuated by time, distance, and other strains."

"Doherty's prose dazzles, and she skillfully integrates her copious research into the narrative while toggling between biographical, creative, and political matters."

"Doherty tries to address all of these, in part, one suspects, because the subjects of her title — the five 'Equivalents' — seem, from a contemporary intersectional perspective, potentially problematic: They were white, and, with the exception of Olsen, educated and largely well-off ..."

"Her book is a love story about art and female friendship ..."

"Doherty's rigorous history is an empowering reminder that to change ourselves, we must have systemic support outside ourselves — institutional structures that reinforce the belief that all people are created equal, not just equivalent."

"Doherty closes with a comparison of that era with ours."

"Doherty's first book, is written with panache."

"Doherty sets all of her magnetic subjects within a fresh assessment of the sexism of postwar and Cold War America, and celebrates the Equivalents for breaking ground for "innovative, intimate" creations by women."