A pioneering contribution to the cultural history of medicine exploring issues as diverse as dissection of the heart, childbirth, masturbation, animal care, hermaphrodites, orthopaedics, 'miracle' drugs, smallpox and sex advice in different European cultures from the 1600s to the present day. Each case study illustrates various roles of mediation; reconciling conflicting ideas in the medical encounter; as an instrument of domination, or conversely, of resistance. Roy Porter's brilliant foreword conveys the methodological significance as well as the pleasure of these essays.
A pioneering contribution to the cultural history of medicine exploring issues as diverse as dissection of the heart, childbirth, masturbation, animal...
..".a richly textured analysis of medical and lay abortion discourses and practices, artistic representations of the procedure, and of women's, particularly lower-class women's, own perceptions and experiences of abortion. Skilfully using an impressive variety of sources, Usborne provides a meticulous, insightful, and lively study that questions some of the continuing assumptions about the Weimar Republic.and provides an exciting example of how to approach the history of the body." - Medical History
"Based on a careful reading of court files, this investigation reveals a rich and often...
..".a richly textured analysis of medical and lay abortion discourses and practices, artistic representations of the procedure, and of women's, partic...
..".a richly textured analysis of medical and lay abortion discourses and practices, artistic representations of the procedure, and of women's, particularly lower-class women's, own perceptions and experiences of abortion. Skilfully using an impressive variety of sources, Usborne provides a meticulous, insightful, and lively study that questions some of the continuing assumptions about the Weimar Republic.and provides an exciting example of how to approach the history of the body." - Medical History "Based on a careful reading of court files, this investigation reveals a rich and often...
..".a richly textured analysis of medical and lay abortion discourses and practices, artistic representations of the procedure, and of women's, partic...
This book analyses how the Weimar Republic put Germany in the forefront of social reform and women's emancipation with wide-ranging maternal welfare programmes and labour protection laws. Its enlightened policy of family planning and liberalised abortion laws offered women a new measure of control over their lives. But the new politics of the body also increased state intervention, the power of the medical profession and the tendency to sacrifice women's rights to national interests whenever the Volk seemed in danger of 'racial decline'.
This book analyses how the Weimar Republic put Germany in the forefront of social reform and women's emancipation with wide-ranging maternal welfare p...
