Body Politic: Dispatches From The Women's Health Revolution

Women's health has been fraught with politics, condescension, indifference, and a systematic disenfranchisement of the capacity for women to manage their own minds and bodies. In this epic collection of essays, famous feminists Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Gloria Steinem, and many others explore everything from midwifery to abortion to the pharmaceutical industry's disregard of women. Essays aim to foster a holistic, politicized understanding of what women have gone through to reclaim their bodies and an informed understanding of how they function. The task these editors have set themselves is daunting – how to honestly assimilate so complex a topic while doing service to its history, future, and interdisciplinary intricacies – and they accomplish it with aplomb. The book contains richly personal and extremely thoughtful explorations into a staggering variety of topics that make the reader feel that they are barely scratching the surface, even after a thousand pages. Still, the size of the book is a deterrent to all but the most determined students of the subject; these essays are best taken in small doses. (Aug.)