Awards

• Nominated for Berkshire Conference of Women Historians First Book Prize 2015
• Nominated for Ellis W. Hawley Prize 2016
• Nominated for James Willard Hurst Prize 2016
• Nominated for OAH Frederick Jackson Turner Award 2016

Overview

"Forty years after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision legalizing abortion, Roe v. Wade continues to make headlines. After Roe: The Lost History of the Abortion Debate cuts through the myths and misunderstandings to present a clear-eyed account of cultural and political responses to the landmark 1973 ruling in the decade that followed. The grassroots activists who shaped the discussion after Roe, Mary Ziegler shows, were far more fluid and diverse than the partisans dominating the debate today. In the early years after the decision, advocates on either side of the abortion battle sought common ground on issues from pregnancy discrimination to fetal research. Drawing on archives and more than 100 interviews with key participants, Ziegler's revelations complicate the view that abortion rights proponents were insensitive to larger questions of racial and class injustice, and expose as caricature the idea that abortion opponents were inherently antifeminist. But over time, ""pro-abortion"" and ""anti-abortion"" positions hardened into ""pro-choice"" and ""pro-life"" categories in response to political pressures and compromises. This increasingly contentious back-and-forth produced the interpretation now taken for granted-that Roe was primarily a ruling on a woman's right to choose. Peering beneath the surface of social-movement struggles in the 1970s, After Roe reveals how actors on the left and the right have today made Roe a symbol for a spectrum of fervently held political beliefs."

Full Product Details

9780674736771

Table of Contents

Reviews

The story Ziegler tells has considerable relevance today.--Jessica Abrahams Prospect (07/01/2015)

An original and compelling history that complicates our understanding of abortion politics in important ways. Ziegler has written a real insiders account rich and textured that comprehensively traces the history of social movements response to Roe v. Wade, explaining how they developed, navigated internal tensions and external pressures, and made strategic and ideological choices and compromises. She demonstrates that the pro-life/pro-choice split was never inevitable; instead, it emerged in response to a variety of contingencies, including changing political conditions.--Sara Dubow, author of Ourselves Unborn: Fetal Meanings in Modern America

Author Information

Mary Ziegler is Stearns Weaver Miller Professor of Law at Florida State University College of Law.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available