Madame Restell : the life, death, and resurrection of old New York's most fabulous, fearless, and infamous abortionist / by Jennifer Wright.
Material type:
TextLanguage: English Publisher: New York, NY : Hachette Books, [2023]Edition: First editionDescription: xv, 334 pages ; 24 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780306826795
- 0306826798
- Life, death, and resurrection of old New York's most fabulous, fearless, and infamous abortionist
- Restell, Madame, 1811-1878
- Abortion services -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 19th century
- Abortion -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 19th century
- Women in medicine -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography
- Patent medicines -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 19th century
- Restell, Madame, 1811-1878 -- Trials, litigation, etc
- Trials (Abortion) -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 19th century
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
|
Main Library | Biography | RESTELL, M. W951 | Available | 33111010969281 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Discover the true story of a self-taught surgeon and trailblazing figure in medical history--Madame Restell, a revolutionary surgeon who fought for women's rights and healthcare in Gilded Age New York.
An industrious immigrant who built her business from the ground up, Madame Restell was a self-taught surgeon on the cutting edge of healthcare in pre-Gilded Age New York, and her bustling "boarding house" provided birth control, abortions, and medical assistance to thousands of women--rich and poor alike. As her practice expanded, her notoriety swelled, and Restell established her-self as a prime target for tabloids, threats, and lawsuits galore. But far from fading into the background, she defiantly flaunted her wealth, parading across the city in designer clothes, expensive jewelry, and bejeweled carriages, rubbing her success in the faces of the many politicians, publishers, fellow physicians, and religious figures determined to bring her down.
Unfortunately for Madame Restell, her rise to the top of her field coincided with "the greatest scam you've never heard about"--the campaign to curtail women's power by restricting their access to both healthcare and careers of their own. Powerful, secular men--threatened by women's burgeoning independence--were eager to declare abortion sinful, a position endorsed by newly-minted male MDs who longed to edge out their feminine competition and turn medicine into a standardized, male-only practice. By unraveling the misogynistic and misleading lies that put women's lives in jeopardy, Wright simultaneously restores Restell to her rightful place in history and obliterates the faulty reasoning underlying the very foundation of what has since been dubbed the "pro-life" movement.
Thought-provoking, character-driven, boldly written, and feminist as hell, Madame Restell is required reading for anyone and everyone who believes that when it comes to women's rights, women's bodies, and women's history, women should have the last word .
Includes bibliographical references and index.
"Madame Restell is a sharp, witty Gilded Age medical history which introduces us to an iconic, yet tragically overlooked, feminist heroine: a glamorous women's healthcare provider in Manhattan, known to the world as Madame Restell. A celebrity in her day with a flair for high fashion and public, petty beefs, Restell was a self-made woman and single mother who used her wit, her compassion, and her knowledge of family medicine to become one of the most in-demand medical workers in New York. Not only that, she used her vast resources to care for the most vulnerable women of the city: unmarried women in need of abortions, birth control, and other medical assistance. In defiance of increasing persecution from powerful men, Restell saved the lives of thousands of young women; in fact, in historian Jennifer Wright's own words, "despite having no formal training and a near-constant steam of women knocking at her door, she never lost a patient." Restell was a revolutionary who opened the door to the future of reproductive choice for women, and Wright brings Restell and her circle to life in this dazzling, sometimes dark, and thoroughly entertaining tale. In addition to uncovering the forgotten history of Restell herself, the book also doubles as an eye-opening look into the "greatest American scam you've never heard about": the campaign to curtail women's power by restricting their access to healthcare. Before the 19th century, abortion and birth control were not only legal in the United States, but fairly common, and public healthcare needs (for women and men alike) were largely handled by midwives and female healers. However, after the Birth of the Clinic, newly-minted male MDs wanted to push women out of their space-by forcing women back into the home and turning medicine into a standardized, male-only practice. At the same time, a group of powerful, secular men-threatened by women's burgeoning independence in other fields-persuaded the Christian leadership to declare abortion a sin, rewriting the meaning of "Christian morality" to protect their own interests. As Wright explains, "their campaign to do so was so insidious-and successful-that it remains largely unrecognized to this day, a century and a half later." By unraveling the misogynistic and misleading lies that put women's health in jeopardy, Wright simultaneously restores Restell to her rightful place in history and obliterates the faulty, fractured reasoning underlying the very foundation of what has since been dubbed the "pro-life" movement. Thought-provoking, character-driven, funny, and feminist as hell, Madame Restell is required reading for anyone and everyone who believes that when it comes to women's rights, women's bodies, and women's history, women should have the last word"-- Provided by publisher.