Intrepid Girls: The Complicated History of the Girl Scouts of the USA

“Farrell has provided a definitive account of the GSUSA. . . . Intrepid Girls is a work of impressive depth and a significant contribution to our knowledge of the GSUSA as an organisation . . . [that] forces us to look past the sweet-as-pie façade of the Girls Scouts and examine its deeper, messier, complex history.”—Sinister Wisdom

“Amy Erdman Farrell’s comprehensive and insightful history offers an appreciative account of the ways in which the Girl Scouts offered girls and women opportunities for empowerment, adventure, friendship, and community. Her analysis also examines how, for all of its progressive and inclusive intentions, the Girl Scouts of the USA perpetuated and reinforced racial, class, colonial, and imperialist hierarchies. This lively and engaging book will appeal to all readers, whether or not they engaged in scouting, or ever enjoyed a Girl Scout cookie.”— Elaine Tyler May, author of Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era

“Amy Farrell’s expansive and insightful study of the Girl Scouts proves that you can love an institution that was formative in your life and still bring a critical eye to what is largely invisible in that institution, in this case racism, white supremacy and privilege, sexism, and vestiges of imperial colonialism. I cannot imagine a better book about the iconic Girl Scouts, not just for women who loved their Girl Scout experiences but also for the rest of us.” — Jay Mechling, author of On My Honor: Boy Scouts and the Making of American Youth

“As someone who writes about US girls’ organizations, I wish that Farrell’s findings would have been available when I was writing my book! Rich, detailed, and multifaceted, Farrell’s work captures complex ideas in succinct, accessible prose.”—Jennifer Helgren, author of The Camp Fire Girls: Gender, Race, and American Girlhood, 1910–1980

“This eye-opening account is the first comprehensive history of the Girl Scouts from [the organizations] inception in the 1910s to the early twenty-first century. The scant attention paid to an organization that has offered extracurricular activities to more than 50 million American girls is hard to explain and even harder to accept. The stakes are high, and this book blends analysis and autobiographical reflection in an exemplary manner.”—Mischa Honeck, author of Our Frontier Is the World: The Boy Scouts in the Age of American Ascendancy