Overview
Dangerous Pregnancies tells the largely forgotten story of the German measles epidemic of the early 1960s and how it created national anxiety about dying, disabled, and ""dangerous"" babies. This epidemic would ultimately transform abortion politics, produce new science, and help build two of the most enduring social movements of the late twentieth century--the reproductive rights and the disability rights movements. At most a minor rash and fever for women, German measles (also known as rubella), if contracted during pregnancy, could result in miscarriages, infant deaths, and serious birth defects in the newborn. Award-winning writer Leslie J. Reagan chronicles for the first time the discoveries and dilemmas of this disease in a book full of intimate stories--including riveting courtroom testimony, secret investigations of women and doctors for abortion, and startling media portraits of children with disabilities. In exploring a disease that changed America, Dangerous Pregnancies powerfully illuminates social movements that still shape individual lives, pregnancy, medicine, law, and politics.
Full Product Details
Author: Leslie J. Reagan
Publisher: University of California Press
Imprint: University of California Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.50cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.408kg
ISBN: 9780520274570
ISBN 10: 0520274571
Pages: 392
Publication Date: 09 July 2012
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Out of stock
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.
Reviews
Previously confidential, unpublished court cases and individual accounts add to the uniqueness of Reagan's historical angle. Foreword 20100729 Ultimately inspiring story that should be required reading for anyone who doubts the benefits of vaccines. -- Jo Marchant New Scientist 20100821 Intellectual. -- Margaret Marsh Journal Of American History 20110620 Fascinating. -- Mary Devereux Journal Of Clinical Investigation 20110620 Powerfully moving, historically precise, and politically relevant. -- Carol Mason American Studies 20101101
Previously confidential, unpublished court cases and individual accounts add to the uniqueness of Reagan's historical angle. --Foreword Ultimately inspiring story that should be required reading for anyone who doubts the benefits of vaccines. --New Scientist Intellectual. --Jrnl of American History Fascinating. --Jrnl of Clinical Investigation Powerfully moving, historically precise, and politically relevant. --American Studies
Intellectual. -- Jrnl of American History
Author Information
Leslie J. Reagan is Professor of History, with affiliations in gender and women's studies, law, media and cinema studies, and medicine, at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of When Abortion Was a Crime: Women, Medicine, and Law in the United States 1867-1973 (UC Press) and coeditor of Medicine's Moving Pictures: Medicine, Health, and Bodies in American Film and Television.
