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[I]t is in her analysis of the new cultural divide between the child-seekers and the child-free that May is most interesting...Having carried out extensive archive research when describing childlessness in past centuries, May based her study of the 1990s on correspondence from 500 men and women who answered her request for personal testimony...[which] lend[s] an otherwise fact-laden tome the vivid colours of oral history. -- Cristina Odone New Statesman

I t is in her analysis of the new cultural divide between the child-seekers and the child-free that May is most interesting...Having carried out extensive archive research when describing childlessness in past centuries, May based her study of the 1990s on correspondence from 500 men and women who answered her request for personal testimony... which lend s an otherwise fact-laden tome the vivid colours of oral history. -- Cristina Odone New Statesman centuries, May based her study of the 1990s on correspondence from 500 men and women who answered her request for personal testimony...[which] lend[s] an otherwise fact-laden tome the vivid colours of oral history. toward parenthood, while surveying developments in reproductive interventions. Most important, this engaging book establishes the importance of the changing practices and meanings of childbearing and fertility for American history. [I]t is in her analysis of the new cultural divide between the child-seekers and the child-free that May is most interesting...Having carried out extensive archive research when describing childlessness in past centuries, May based her study of the 1990s on correspondence from 500 men and women who answered her request for personal testimony...[which] lend[s] an otherwise fact-laden tome the vivid colours of oral history.--Cristina Odone New Statesman May documents a continuing American obsession with reproduction and shows how this public embrace of childbearing has inflicted anguish on childless women across the centuries.--Susan Chira New York Times Book Review The first major historical study of childlessness in the United States...[ Barren in the Promised Land ] provides an intriguing analysis of shifts in public attitudes and values toward parenthood, while surveying developments in reproductive interventions. Most important, this engaging book establishes the importance of the changing practices and meanings of childbearing and fertility for American history.--Lynn Weiner Journal of American History Through rich anecdotes from the past and the testimonies of more than 500 contemporary Americans who do not have children, [May] creates a compelling portrait of the growing isolation of the childless.--Hagar Scher Ms. Magazine A powerful and sensitive chronicle of America's struggle to deal with the issue of childlessness, giving us new insight into how race, economic status, and changing cultural norms have shaped the way we feel about women bearing children.--William H. Chafe, Duke University Everyone who thinks about childbearing--in the personal sense of whether or when to have children, or in the context of social policy choices, including legislation to support parenting or encourage birth control--will soon be talking about this book.--Linda K. Kerber, University of Iowa

A superb historical and qualitative analysis that explores the intersection of public and private definitions of fertility and childlessness. May (American Studies/Univ. of Minnesota; Homeward Bound, 1988, etc.) observes that in a nation obsessed with reproduction, Americans must reconcile the supposedly private experience of parenting with public social norms. It is an emotionally charged debate from all sides, and May believes that public discussions about infertility reflect not so much a concern about children, but a preoccupation with parents: who should raise the nations' future citizens. Using a wide range of voices culled from 500 responses to her author's queries, May seeks to determine how the personal dimension of childlessness has changed over time. She argues that whereas American society once appreciated couples without children as long as they contributed to larger community enterprises, the childless now find themselves struggling for respect. She discovers two trends: toward the growing preoccupation with one's own reproductive capacity and the increased manipulation of reproduction. The result in our pronatalist society is that, despite the fact that having children is an economic drain rather than an economic asset, many go to extremes to bear children, enduring years of invasive hi-tech fertility treatments with no guarantee of success. But while the majority of May's respondents voiced similar goals (happiness, self-fulfillment, etc.), not all saw bearing children as the path to achieving them. According to May, as the public world gets more and more chaotic, individuals will continue to turn to their private lives for happiness and fulfillment, so the focus on children and who is fit to raise them is not likely to ease any time soon. May's fertile analysis of childlessness should be included as part of any inquiry into the construction and meaning of family life. (Kirkus Reviews)

Everyone who thinks about childbearing--in the personal sense of whether or when to have children, or in the context of social policy choices, including legislation to support parenting or encourage birth control--will soon be talking about this book.--Linda K. Kerber, University of Iowa

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Elaine Tyler May is Professor of American Studies at the University of Minnesota.

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