Overview
Less than a century ago, physicians, scientists, and cultural commentators became fascinated by the endocrine glands and the effects of their secretions on our bodies and minds. Of all the characteristics supposed to be governed by them, the attributes of sex evoked the wildest interest. The gonads, it was revealed, secreted chemicals that not only influenced the biological expressions of sex, but seemed to generate the vitality and energy that made life worth living. Through a series of case studies drawn from Central Europe, the United States, and Britain, The Most Secret Quintessence of Life explores how the notion of sex hormones enabled scientists to remap the human body, encouraging hopes that glandular interventions could cure ills, malfunctions, and even social deviance in ways inconceivable to previous generations. Many of these dreams failed, but their history, Chandak Sengoopta shows, takes us into the very heart of scientific medicine, revealing how even its most arcane concerns are shaped by cultural preoccupations and anxieties.
Full Product Details
Author: Chandak Sengoopta
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Dimensions:
Width: 1.70cm
, Height: 0.30cm
, Length: 2.40cm
Weight: 0.765kg
ISBN: 9780226748634
ISBN 10: 0226748634
Pages: 360
Publication Date: 01 May 2006
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Available To Order
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Reviews
The Most Secret Quintessence of Life is an original work filled with rich, new research, relying on important primary literature which has not, until now, been plumbed and digested. In this book, Chandak Sengoopta offers both a history of hormone discovery and a chronicle of how this discovery transformed our concepts of the body and how our existing concepts of sex and sexuality, in turn, informed our concepts for understanding hormones. - Anne Fausto-Sterling, author of Sexing the Body
"""The Most Secret Quintessence of Life is an original work filled with rich, new research, relying on important primary literature which has not, until now, been plumbed and digested. In this book, Chandak Sengoopta offers both a history of hormone discovery and a chronicle of how this discovery transformed our concepts of the body and how our existing concepts of sex and sexuality, in turn, informed our concepts for understanding hormones."" - Anne Fausto-Sterling, author of Sexing the Body"""
Author Information
Chandak Sengoopta is a senior lecturer in the history of medicine and science at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author of two previous books, including Otto Weininger: Sex, Science, and Self in Imperial Vienna, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
