Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

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The only constants in nature are change and death. Terry Tempest Williams, a naturalist and writer from northern Utah, has seen her share of both. The pages of Refuge resound with the deaths of her mother and grandmother and other women from cancer, the result of the American government's ongoing nuclear-weapons tests in the nearby Nevada desert. You won't find the episode in the standard history textbooks; the Feds wouldn't admit to conducting the tests until women and men in Utah, Nevada, and northwestern Arizona took the matter to court in the mid-1980s, and by then thousands of Americans had fallen victim to official technology. Parallel to her account of this devastation, Williams describes changes in bird life at the sanctuaries dotting the shores of the Great Salt Lake as water levels rose during the unusually wet early 1980s and threatened the nesting grounds of dozens of species. In this world of shattered eggs and drowned shorebirds, Williams reckons with the meaning of life, alternating despair and joy.

Book Description

In the spring of 1983 Terry Tempest Williams learned that her mother was dying of cancer. That same season, The Great Salt Lake began to rise to record heights, threatening the herons, owls, and snowy egrets that Williams, a poet and naturalist, had come to gauge her life by. One event was nature at its most random, the other a by-product of rogue technology: Terry's mother, and Terry herself, had been exposed to the fallout of atomic bomb tests in the 1950s. As it interweaves these narratives of dying and accommodation, Refuge transforms tragedy into a document of renewal and spiritual grace, resulting in a work that has become a classic.

Customer Reviews:

Nothing Unnatural About It; It's Sacred.......2006-10-28

The first time I went to Utah, I read Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire" and loved it. This time, at a bookstore in Moab, I picked up Williams' "Red" for a contemporary view of the ecological issues around this gorgeous desert landscape, which is unlike any place I have been. Although I liked "Red," people told me "Refuge" was even better.

This is a very special book. I'm no birdwatcher, but it made me want to be. I'm no scientist, but I wished I were. I'm no Mormon, but it gave me respect for a religion I have never been able to fathom. Terry Tempest Williams has profound insights into the natural world. Her observations of the Great Salt Lake and the many migratory birds that visit it are as moving as her account of the death by cancer of her mother and grandmothers. Not surprisingly, they taught Williams awe of birds and sunsets and their own bodies. All of them are brave and spiritual women, and we would be wise to learn from them.

I think what I most admire about Williams as a writer is her emotional courage. Time and time again, she strikes out where more conventional writers would hesitate. She finds redeeming passages from the Book of Mormon. She follows her mother through her long and circuitous spiritual journey with cancer. She follows her grandmother as she moves into Eastern thought and modern physics. She dips respectfully into ancient Indian and Mexican culture. She walks in the desert at some peril to her well-being. She speaks of the intimacy of her marriage and about her decision not to bear children.

Yet his is not a book "about" the desert or cancer or birds or Mormonism, but about life and how it can be richly observed, experienced. shared and redeemed. It's one brave woman's answer to "Desert Solitaire."

This verse unlocks the heart........2006-10-16

Terry Tempest Williams is a national treasure. Her unvarnished verse carries one deep into the mystery of the Earth and sends us helplessly into the depths of our own hearts. The landscape of wildness breaths a spectacular wisdom under the watchful eyes of this keen observer of wind, rock, desert, sky, sage, along with the birds who soar and dance and play in a benediction to non-sentient life.

When I need to recapture my own mortality along with my own humility, I always return to the verse of this elder of silence and truth. Williams stands alone in the power to convey both outer and inner wildness. Her verse is poetic and healing. One does not read these words but are instead initiated into the heart beat of wild nature. Savor its beauty as you might a calming sunset or a wind swept sea shore calling you ever deeper into your own soul.

Read everything she writes and find peace deep within.

If you have been affected by cancer it is worth reading!!!.......2006-06-26

I loved and hated this book. It is beatifully written. I found the author frustrating at times. Some parts got a little long winded about the birds. It takes you on a emotional rollercoaster but the pay off of finishing this book is worth it. Any one who has been affected by cancer will find this book very inciteful to the process of going through treatment and also the death process. Terry Tempest gives the most authentic and honest account of what life is like living through cancer I have every read. She put into words thought and feelings I could never express fully.
The research of the history of the Great Salt Lake was very fun to read about. I have lived in Utah all my life, but I have never been to the Lake I now am very curious to see it and the bird refuge. I think I will find the trip much more interesting now than if I had gone before reading this book.

Suprising turn of events.......2006-03-02

Terry Tempest Williams is a naturalist living in Utah who has the history of cancer in her family. Cancer in this novel is paralleled with the flooding of the neighboring Great Salt Lake. Overall this book goes to show that cancer goes deeper than the person who it is diagnosed to. I would suggest this book on limited circumstances: One-if you can get past the strong feminine presence and domination of this novel. Two-do not read the last 60 or so pages. I approved of this book up until that point. If the book ended at that point, leaving out the harassment of the government it would be ten times better. To anyone who is in the process of reading Refuge, you won't want to read past around page 230. Enough said.
My rating(first 230 or so pages): 7.5/10
My rating(after page 230 or so) 2.5/10

Disappointed.......2006-02-03

Although I found the passages about Ms. Williams relationships with her mother and grandmother and their struggles with cancer to be well-written and moving, I am surprised that she and many other reviewers imply that the cancers were the consequences of nuclear testing. I think of myself as an environmentalist, and I believe that such testing is likely to have been harmful to human health; however, the striking family history of breast and ovarian cancer in this case strongly suggests that there is a genetic disorder (mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene) that was responsible for the cancer in these women. I was living in Salt Lake City during the spring of 1983, and the flooding was indeed dramatic, but I was bored by the rather repetitious descriptions of the refuge and the birds.

Bathsheba's Breast: Women, Cancer, and History

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Breast Cancer from 480 B.C.E. to present day
A Must Read for Everyone Affected by Breast Cancer
A sensitive,multi-faceted and comprehensive look at breast cancer
Fighting with Hope Against Breast Cancer
An Excellent Blend of History and Medicine

Bathsheba's Breast: Women, Cancer, and History
James S. Olson
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0801880645

Book Description

"Breast cancer may very well be history's oldest malaise, known as well to the ancients as it is to us. The women who have endured it share a unique sisterhood. Queen Atossa and Dr. Jerri Nielsen -- separated by era and geography, by culture, religion, politics, economics, and world view -- could hardly have been more different. Born 2,500 years apart, they stand as opposite bookends on the shelf of human history. One was the most powerful woman in the ancient world, the daughter of an emperor, the mother of a god; the other is a twenty-first-century physician with a streak of adventure coursing through her veins. From the imperial throne in ancient Babylon, Atossa could not have imagined the modern world, and only in the driest pages of classical literature could Antarctica-based Jerri Nielsen even have begun to fathom the Near East five centuries before the birth of Christ. For all their differences, however, they shared a common fear that transcends time and space." -- from Bathsheba's Breast

In 1967, an Italian surgeon touring Amsterdam's Rijks museum stopped in front of Rembrandt's Bathsheba at Her Bath, on loan from the Louvre, and noticed an asymmetry to Bathsheba's left breast; it seemed distended, swollen near the armpit, discolored, and marked with a distinctive pitting. With a little research, the physician learned that Rembrandt's model, his mistress Hendrickje Stoffels, later died after a long illness, and he conjectured in a celebrated article for an Italian medical journal that the cause of her death was almost certainly breast cancer.

A horror known to every culture in every age, breast cancer has been responsible for the deaths of 25 million women throughout history. An Egyptian physician writing 3,500 years ago concluded that there was no treatment for the disease. Later surgeons recommended excising the tumor or, in extreme cases, the entire breast. This was the treatment advocated by the court physician to sixth-century Byzantine empress Theodora, the wife of Justinian, though she chose to die in pain rather than lose her breast. Only in the past few decades has treatment advanced beyond disfiguring surgery.

In Bathsheba's Breast, historian James S. Olson -- who lost his left hand and forearm to cancer while writing this book -- provides an absorbing and often frightening narrative history of breast cancer told through the heroic stories of women who have confronted the disease, from Theodora to Anne of Austria, Louis XIV's mother, who confronted "nun's disease" by perfecting the art of dying well, to Dr. Jerri Nielson, who was dramatically evacuated from the South Pole in 1999 after performing a biopsy on her own breast and self-administering chemotherapy. Olson explores every facet of the disease: medicine's evolving understanding of its pathology and treatment options; its cultural significance; the political and economic logic that has dictated the terms of a war on a "woman's disease"; and the rise of patient activism. Olson concludes that, although it has not yet been conquered, breast cancer is no longer the story of individual women struggling alone against a mysterious and deadly foe.

Customer Reviews:

Breast Cancer from 480 B.C.E. to present day.......2006-11-10

This was a well written book which followed many personal stories of women through out history and their battle with cancer. It is a history book but was written dramatically and keeps the reader interested. It covers almost every topic concerning women and breast cancer. The only complaint is that the second half of the book is based more on the politics and legislation of breast cancer which becomes slightly repetitive and boring.

A Must Read for Everyone Affected by Breast Cancer.......2006-11-05

As a metastatic breast cancer patient, I found this book to be enormously enlightening. For the first time, I feel as though I really understand this disease and how we've gotten to this point in time in terms of prevailing attitudes, available treatments, doctor-patient relationships, and overall prognosis. Although it's a history lesson, this book has also served to give me a new perspective for evaluating my own personal options. I feel empowered by the information in these pages. It points out how deadly serious breast cancer is, even though some would have us believe otherwise. I recommend this book for everyone who is affected by breast cancer (which should be practically everyone).

A sensitive,multi-faceted and comprehensive look at breast cancer.......2005-08-12

James Olson is to be commended for writing this much needed history of breast cancer for the layman. My husband is a radiologist beginning a fellowship in breast imaging. He discovered this fascinating book and when he was finished I asked him to give it to me. Like the previous reviewer, I couldn't put it down. I don't have breast cancer, but I am of the age when many of my peers have developed this frightening disease. Olson is realistic, empathetic, and well informed. My favorite line came from former child star Shirley Temple Black who, rather than have a biopsy turn into a radical mastecomy, responded to the press by saying, "The surgeon will make the incision. I will make the decision." You can't read this book without having enormous respect for the women who did their own research, asked the right questions, and took on the conventional wisdom and arrogance of male physicians. At the same time, Olson is brutal on the hucksters and frauds who attempt to explain away cancer with psychobabble and unproveable theories. Bathseba's Breast is not an optimistic book, but it can be reassuring that slow, steady progress is being made in the battle against breast cancer.

Fighting with Hope Against Breast Cancer.......2004-02-13

Bathsheba's Breast: Women, Cancer & History by James Olson is a far-reaching examination of the dreaded disease of breast cancer. Impressive for its scope of historical, medical, political and personal references, the book transcends its obvious historical imperative by including much about living with hope in the face of adversity as well as dying without surrendering to the evil disease.

A cancer diagnosis today is not necessarily a death sentence. Olson explains how breast cancer has threatened all women, regardless of demography, since at least the time of the pharaohs and probably since creation of the species. The fifth of Olson's 11 carefully referenced chapters inaugurates the book's evolution of Hope for breast cancer sufferers, signaling with its title, "New Beginnings: Assault on the Radical Mastectomy." Make no mistake, neither the chapter nor the book reveal the silver bullet that will conquer breast cancer. However, from this point forward, Bathsheba's Breast explains how medical science has made progress against the disease - sometimes despite itself - and how that progress appeared to be accelerating at the end of the 20th century, albeit in tortuously slow steps for those fighting the disease. Increasingly credible optimism emerges as Olson explains the evolution of medicine's knowledge and attitudes about breast cancer, the birth of breast cancer patient advocacy and the growing arsenal of weapons that medical researchers, physicians and patients are bringing to the fight.

Olson is comprehensive, well organized and even entertaining in an appropriate tone for such a serious topic as he gives us the history, evolution and status of the war against breast cancer. Bathsheba's Breast is suitable for all readers, regardless of gender, ethnicity, age or health. Its appeal to such a broad audience lies mainly in the mature tone and integrated style with which Olson approaches all aspects of the subject. It's also because he's deciphered cancer's jargon of "omas" and "ectomies" so they're understandable, both in definition and in context. Readers will be pleased how smoothly he combines history, complicated medical research, political science and public opinion with the personal stories of patients to produce a compelling read.

Faithful to the historigraphical method, the book ventures 3,500 years back to an Egyptian surgeon who wrote about "bulging tumors" in the breast for which "There is no treatment." Olson tells how Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, studied the nature and cause of cancer, attributing its cause to "black bile," one of his four theoretical fluids of the body: blood, phlegm, yellow and black bile. The book develops a special character as it links these ancients to women of subsequent history who suffered from breast cancer. We learn about victims like Theodora, wife of Justinian, the emperor of Byzantium in the sixth century, Anne of Austria, the mother of Louis XIV in the 17th century, George Washington's mother in the 18th century, Abigail Adams, daughter of President John Adams in the 19th century and many sufferers in the 20th century. These personal experiences of breast cancer victims provide substantive information and welcomed inspiration for all readers, no doubt especially for those with the disease. Some stories are optimistic, others sad, some even humorous. Teddy Roosevelt's far-from-bashful, strong-willed daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, battled the disease throughout much of her life. She lost one breast to cancer in 1956 and in 1970, at age 86, underwent a second mastectomy on the other breast. Emerging from the second operation, she announced unashamedly she was "America's only topless octogenarian."

The 20th century's sexual revolution, catalyzed by nude photos of Marilyn Monroe and increasingly large monthly circulations of Hugh Hefner's "Playboy" magazine beginning in the 1950's, established the cult of the breast in America. Olson explains how big breasts became big business as society placed new value on them because of their erotic appeal. As America's fascination with the breast was exported around the world, women, men and physicians became more amenable to alternative treatments for breast cancer. Ironically, preoccupation with eroticism encouraged the pursuit of a cure.

Bathsheba's Breast adds credibility and emotion to the history of breast cancer by sharing experiences of many 20th century women who've fought the disease with bravery and hope. The legacy of Rose Kushner's 16-year battle against breast cancer and the indifference it often suffered from arrogant physicians and disinterested politicians is unforgettable. Her emotions flared - as do those of readers today - as we read about a surgeon shouting at her, "No patient is going to tell me how to do my surgery."

No doubt Kushner told that surgeon what she wrote in her best-selling, 1975 book, Breast Cancer, "We women should be free, knowledgeable, and completely conscious when the time comes for decision, so that we can make it for ourselves. Our lives are at stake, not a surgeon's." Kushner is the founder of the American breast cancer advocacy movement who battled valiantly but ultimately lost her war with the disease in January, 1990.

The evolution of breast cancer advocacy in America inspired by Rose Kushner is a compelling part of the book. Olson visits labs and legislatures to explain breast cancer's clinical and political issues, ranging from the campaign for lumpectomies and radiation instead of radical mastectomies as initial treatment alternatives to the need for greater government support for cancer research. He tells how Shirley Temple Black, Betty Ford, Happy Rockefeller, Betty Rollin, Jill Ireland, Linda McCartney, Dr. Jerri Nielsen and many others had the courage to go public with their battles against breast cancer, generating publicity that kept the disease in clinical and political focus.

Although Olson mentions it only quietly in a brief preface at the beginning of the book, his personal battle against cancer has permitted him to fuse Bathsheba's Breast with an empathy that's probably the ultimate reason why the book is as good as it is. It wastes no time with irrelevance as it moves seamlessly from history, medical science and politics to the media, pop culture and patients. The story of the battle against breast cancer is multi-faceted and James Olson shines a bright light on all of them.

An Excellent Blend of History and Medicine.......2003-05-28

My husband purchased this book for me after he heard the author on NPR. I could not put it down. The author's approach to looking at breast cancer over time, the changes in treatment options, and how accidental findings changed the course of medical treatment over time was illuminating. The book also raises the spectre as to how much of breast cancer treatment advances, or lack of, were the result of this being primarily but not exclusively a female disease. I do not have a formal medical background, so I was a little leary that it would be too technical. But instead, I found it to be highly readable and engaging. It also sends a strong message that from the beginning of time breast cancer held no one harmless. And in many ways, the key to the advances have come from patients taking their health destiny into their own hands and not simply accepting a physician's treatment recommendation. Certainly sheds light on the more recent discussions about the value of mammography as a diagnostic tool. Well worth reading!!

SOCIAL HISTORY OF WET NURSING IN AMERICA: FROM BREAST TO BOTTLE (WOMEN & HEALTH C&S PERSPECTIVE)

Average customer rating:

A bit academic, but fascinating

SOCIAL HISTORY OF WET NURSING IN AMERICA: FROM BREAST TO BOTTLE (WOMEN & HEALTH C&S PERSPECTIVE)
JANET GOLDEN
Manufacturer: Ohio State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0814250726

Book Description

A Social History of Wet Nursing in America: From Breast to Bottle examines the intersection of medical science, social theory, and cultural practices as they shaped relations among wet nurses, physicians, and families from the colonial period through the twentieth century. It explores how Americans used wet nursing to solve infant feeding problems, shows why wet nursing became controversial as motherhood slowly became medicalized, and elaborates how the development of scientific infant feeding eliminated wet nursing by the beginning of the twentieth century. Janet Golden's study contributes to our understanding of the cultural authority of medical science, the role of physicians in shaping child rearing practices, the social construction of motherhood, and the profound dilemmas of class and culture that played out in the private space of the nursery.

Customer Reviews:

A bit academic, but fascinating.......2006-03-23

Formula had a predecessor: the wet nurse. Golden tracks her down during the 18th and 19th centuries in America, and documents in some detail how wet nursing was supplanted by formula and why. This is a great source of information for those who wonder about the early history of formula, and also for those who wonder why we don't have more human milk banks. Golden describes the forces pushing the ages of partial and full weaning down through the nineteenth century in all classes.

It's fascinating to hear how a lot of breastfeeding myths we think come from other parts of the world were alive and well in our own country as long as breastfeeding was alive and well. And at least in some contexts, they weren't myths at all. Breastfeeding women in the nineteenth century, particularly wet nurses who were tandem nursing, needed much better nutrition than the other servants, for example.

The ideas and information in this book deserve a larger audience.

False Hope: Bone Marrow Transplantation for Breast Cancer

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False Hope: Bone Marrow Transplantation for Breast Cancer
Richard A. Rettig , Peter D. Jacobson , Cynthia M. Farquhar , and Wade M. Aubry
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0195187768

Book Description

In the late 1980s, a promising new treatment for breast cancer emerged: high-dose chemotherapy with autologous bone marrow transplantation or HDC/ABMT. By the 1990s, it had burst upon the oncology scene and disseminated rapidly before having been carefully evaluated. By the time published studies showed that the procedure was ineffective, more than 30,000 women had received the treatment, shortening their lives and adding to their suffering. This book tells of the rise and demise of HDC/ABMT for metastatic and early stage breast cancer, and fully explores the story's implications, which go well beyond the immediate procedure, and beyond breast cancer, to how we in the United States evaluate other medical procedures, especially life-saving ones. It details how the factors that drove clinical use--patient demand, physician enthusiasm, media reporting, litigation, economic exploitation, and legislative and administrative mandates--converged to propel the procedure forward despite a lack of proven clinical effectiveness. It also analyzes the limited effect of the technology assessments and randomized clinical trials that evaluated the procedure and the ramifications of this flawed system on healthcare today. Sections of the book consider the initial conditions surrounding the emergence of the new breast cancer treatment, the drivers of clinical use, and the struggle for evidence-based medicine. A concluding section considers the significance of the story for our healthcare system.

The Breast Book: An Intimate and Curious History

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In appreciation of the human body
Too small
Best Breast Book By Far
LOVE YOUR BREASTS!
Mostly sound bytes but great pictures

The Breast Book: An Intimate and Curious History
Lithe Sebesta , and Maura Spiegel
Manufacturer: Workman Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0761121129

Book Description

Introducing the chunky, obsessive book of Breasts.

Using over 600 illustrations and photographs, The Breast Book is about changing social mores and attitudes, from classical Greek statuary to the Victorian corset to Twiggy to Pamela Lee. The Breast Book is about envy and etiquette, differences-why 90 percent of French women do not breastfeed, for example-and adornment, including make-up, tattooing, nipple rings, and more. Breasts is about politics, art, religion, kitsch, and burning the bra. About perceptions-90 percent of men prefer a size C over a D. About high art-whether the humanist breast in Renaissance painting or its feminist send-up by photographer Cindy Sherman-and pop art, from Vargas girls to World War II bomber mascots to Madonna. The Breast Book is about getting them right-falsies, bust improvers, gadgets, pumps, and creams-and showing them off, like Jayne Mansfield's, immortalized in cement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater.

A work of pop culture in itself, The Breast Book includes recurring visual elements like Time Lines and Great Moments of the Breast, plus Titbits-fascinating trivia running throughout.

Customer Reviews:

In appreciation of the human body.......2006-03-18

Curiosity killed the cat, so they say, and since such books of anatomical titles rarely appear in local libraries.. I had to order a copy- and why not? The price was right!
Loved it- the breast is a great conversational item, no doubt, and as such, makes a great subject of a book. My only complaint: it is a TINY book, better suited to the coffee table book format, in my opinion- I am over 40, as are my eyes, and the print was laborious to say the least- the pictures deserved to be presented on a larger scale, as well.
I would recommend it to any one, but especially those who have had Lasic or who own grand magnifying glasses!

Too small.......2005-09-08

While I like the contents of this book and its many photos, it should have been the size of a coffee table book. Its cropped nature makes for a less enjoyable read than would a larger lap book. The smallness of it makes the book seem big, because it is extremely thick for any book; about 450 pages. Why not a larger, more readable book of 100 pages? It is a disappointing physical format.

Best Breast Book By Far.......2003-01-21

The Breast Book by Maura Spiegel and Lithe Sebesta is a fascinating and fact-filled compendium about the breast.

The Book is scientific, yet saucy, which it makes it fun to read and filled with solid information.

From the delightful collection of breast photos (both old and new) to the Slang Appendix of Breast synonyms, the Book continually amazes and surprises the reader.

A definite, delightful read sure to please all readers. Don't miss reading this Book!!

LOVE YOUR BREASTS!.......2003-01-04

In our culture of breast implants, sexual focus on breasts, negative views of breastfeeding, the rise of breast cancer, and the sexual and esteem implications that come from it all, this book is sure to TITillate, humor and EMPOWER women!

This book covers the historical views of breasts, as well as the functioning breast (yes, they're actually made to lactate!), the political breast and the sexual breast. I love that it is small, but packed with illustrations and photographs that I had never seen before!

A great little gift for yourself - start appreciating your breasts and they won't let you down!

Mostly sound bytes but great pictures.......2003-01-02

I bought this book after seeing "Cleavage" on A&E a few weeks ago since one of the authors was featured on the show. (Side note: I was quite frankly amazed not to see Marilyn Yalom on this show, but maybe I missed her.) This is a small, cute and flirty book that contains a sort of sound-byte history of the female breast. The pictures are great although far too many are not captioned - if you want to know what you're looking at, you'll need to comb through the credits at the back of the book. A few sections of the text are more or less meaningless (i.e., The Veiled Erotic); others do have lots of genuine facts and insights. In other words, if you want to look at pictures of bosoms without getting too wrapped up in history, politics or other serious issues, this is the book for you. That said, I do think that the book does a good job of looking (very, very briefly) at the breast in its many incarnations: sex object, food, cultural icon, etc. It's a good starting point if you have a serious interest in the history of the breast. I would probably rate this book higher if 1) the book was bigger, 2) and went into more detail. To my mind, if this book is a publishing gimmick (which I believe to be the case), then why not spring for a bit more substance? With all the pictures, I am certain people would be willing to plunk down the cash for it.

I read that the authors put two years of research into this book, and I am pretty perplexed by that. The book came out in 2002, yet a lot of the information could have been directly lifted from Marilyn Yalom's A History of the Breast, which was published in 1995, and which is excellent and far superior (I would recommend it to anyone). Perhaps those two years were spent compiling the very nice collection of photos.

Average customer rating:

Good Popular History that Doesn't Cheat History

Fabulous

A Wonderful Work of Social History

Easy to read

MD/PhD Candidate

A History of the Breast
Marilyn Yalom
Manufacturer: Rivers Oram Press/Pandora List
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Breast Book: An Intimate and Curious History

A History of the Wife

Breasts: The Women's Perspective on an American Obsession

Breasts Breasts

Fresh Milk: The Secret Life of Breasts

ASIN: 0863584004

Amazon.com

What's in a breast? That depends on who's asking, says Marilyn Yalom, author of this scholarly, illustrated treatise on the breast in Western society. "Babies see food. Men see sex. Doctors see disease. Businesspeople see dollar signs." Breasts have been denounced as wanton, or idealized as givers of power or life in images of Egyptian goddess Isis nursing pharoahs; sturdy, maternal Mother Russia; or the more eroticized, bare-breasted symbol of republican ideals in France. Psychologists, religious leaders, advertisers, and pornographers have rhapsodized over, vilified, and used breasts to sell everything from war to Cadillacs. And, finally, women have seen in them pleasure, power, sustenance, fear, or failure to measure up.

Book Description

In this provocative, pioneering, and wholly engrossing cultural history, noted scholar Marilyn Yalom explores twenty-five thousand years of ideas, images, and perceptions of the female breast--in religion, psychology, politics, society, and the arts.

Through the centuries, the breast has been laden with hugely powerful and contradictory meanings. There is the "good breast" of reverence and life, the breast that nourishes infants and entire communities, as depicted in ancient idols, fifteenth-century Italian Madonnas, and representations of equality in the French Revolution. Then there is the "bad breast" of Ezekiel's wanton harlots, Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth, and the torpedo-breasted dominatrix, symbolizing enticement and aggression. Yalom examines these contradictions--and illuminates the implications behind them.

A fascinating, astute, and richly allusive journey from Paleolithic goddesses to modern day feminists, A History of the Breast is full of insight and surprises. As Yalom says, "I intend to make you think about women's breasts as you never have before." In this, she succeeds brilliantly.

Customer Reviews:

Good Popular History that Doesn't Cheat History.......2007-05-18

In nine chapters Marilyn Yalom covers European and American attitudes and use of the female breast from the earliest cities of the Near East to the end of the 20th century. The book is very Western in it's focus, so not a comprehensive history. However, if you know that then you will find a good solid historical approach to an symbol and a body part that has played a huge role in art, literature, politics, religion, and even economies. Generous use of images and quotations are helpful in demonstrating how historians reason and use evidence without making the book very appealing to those looking for a sexual thrill. Overall the book is arranged both thematically and chronologically when possible. This is a book I could have undergraduates read as a feasible example of how history can be interesting and still be focused on the discipline's methods.

Fabulous.......2003-07-29

With a wonderful blend of serious history and modern humor where appropriate, the author presents a thought provoking run down on the history over 25 centuries and the photos of Annie Sprinkles Bosom Ballet on page 268 made the purchase worth every cent.

As the author wisely notes that Westerners assumptions about the breast is often wrong, and that Non western cultures have their own fetishes be it small feet in China, the nape of the neck in Japan, the buttocks in Africa and the Caribbean. That through out western history the breast has been viewed as good and bad, and by men mostly and religious men in particular.

The book is excellent in showing how the breast has been used to depict power and justice be it in war posters (Bosoms For The Nation) or the lady of justice with one breast exposed. To breasts used to sell products or alas slaves. (The commercialized Breast) How the whole idea that breasts were owned according to some by the husband, or were considered babies domain. That it wasn't until the women's movement that women demanded that what was on their bodies belonged to them to do with as they wished, be it nipple piercing, nudity, no bra etc. (The liberated Breast)

There are photos of mastectomy survivors and lord knows dozens of bare, exposed, all size breasts, which I assume the reader would expect in a serious book about the human breast.

It is a book I am so glad I bought. Also check out her excellent History Of The Wife book.

A Wonderful Work of Social History.......2001-05-10

Marilyn Yalom (her latest work, History of the Wife, is spectacular) shows her characteristic style of humor and scholarship in history of the breast. Relying on both art and personal accounts, Yalom goes era by era detailing various Western cultures' attitudes toward the female body and specifically the breast. She spends a great deal of effort detailing modern concerns like breast cancer treatment and breastfeeding controversies and with the background in the first half of the book, the reader is easily able to see how current attitudes have been shaped throughout history. An excellent book for the social historian, women's studies person, or art historian.

Easy to read.......2001-04-11

Marilyn Yalom has a fascinating way of blending history, culture and personal stories in her new book. It reminds me of what Ken Burns has done in some of his documentaries, where you learn as much about life in the times as you do about the specific topic. The book is a wonderful and easy way to learn about the wife in different times, cultures and religions, and also the possibilities of what it might mean to be a wife in the future. Excellent reading.

MD/PhD Candidate.......1999-12-10

Yalom's book meets the highest standards for careful academic work, and, as a source, will turn out to be the standard for investigation into the subject in the future. But the appeal is broad and will engage the general reader, the historian, the physician. In short it is a good history, a good cultural study, and a good read. Fine writing, intriguing illustrations dilated to include such diversity as the political breast, the surgical breast, the nursing breast, the pornographic breast. An excellent analysis.

Don't Kill Your Baby: Public Health and the Decline of Breastfeeding in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Women and Health Cultural and Social Perspectives)

Average customer rating:

Excellent history of public health and breast feeding
extremely boring, could not finish it, loaded with dry facts
Great history og public health and Chicago

Don't Kill Your Baby: Public Health and the Decline of Breastfeeding in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Women and Health Cultural and Social Perspectives)
Jacqueline H. Wolf
Manufacturer: Ohio State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Public Health | Administration & Policy | Medicine | Subjects | Books

General | Medicine | Subjects | Books

History | Special Topics | Medicine | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0814250777

Customer Reviews:

Excellent history of public health and breast feeding.......2003-03-30

This is really a wonderful book. As a parent and someone interested in health in general, I learned a lot. First off, the research behind the book is incredible: the author has combed diaries, old magazines and tons of public records to reconstruct what life was like for women and families at the turn of the century. You really get a feel for the pressures that women were under from society, from changes in culture, from advances in medicine. Even though it's a complicated story, Wolf has broken it down into easy-to-understand chapters. There's a chapter devoted, for example, to the urban milk supply, and how the absolutely filthy conditions in which milk was brought from the country to the city contributed to the dramatically high infant-mortality rate. There's a chapter on wet nurses -- a fascinating story in and of itself as it describes how some women were forced by poverty to sacrifice the health and well-being of their very own children just so they could get a job nursing the baby of a more well-to-do mother.

One of the most eye-opening lessons from the book is that public health reformers who were so keenly interested in bettering the quality of the milk supply inadvertently contributed to the popularity of formula feeding. Mothers were turning to artificial feeding for a whole array of social reasons, but in doing so, were exposing their infants to formulas created with spoiled, rancid and contaminated milk. Hence reformers, desperate to save lives, pushed both breast feeding and reforms to clean the milk supply. They achieved their goal of a cleaner milk supply (another fascinating story that Wolf covers in-depth) but, in the process, inadvertently made artificial milk a more accetable alternative to breast milk -- just another example of a well-intentioned public policy gone awry.

This is a book for people who really want to understand why attitudes toward breast feeding changed in this country and why bottle-feeding has become the norm. I never could understand why so many women bottle-feed -- when breastfeeding seems obviously like the better, healthier choice -- until I read this book. I'm afraid that many mothers simply don't give enough thought to their decisions about breastfeeding. But clearly the author of this book has given the subject a huge amount of thought -- and can all be glad that she did. This is a really powerful and well-researched contribution to what we know today about attitudes toward breast feeding both yesterday and today.

extremely boring, could not finish it, loaded with dry facts.......2003-01-16

I was very disappointed in this book. As a breastfeeding counselor I have a personal interest in the history of infant feeding in America. I truly am interested in how and why Americans got away from breastfeeding in the early 1900s.

I found the book extremely boring and could not finish it. There is no introduction and the book lacks a general logical sequential flow. I found it difficult to hold my interest, as I had no sense of where the author was going with this book. The writing is very dry and only the very dedicated reader would read it through to the end. I wondered what the authorsý overall opinions are. Why did she want to write this book? What is the broad summary of the booksý content? What are her opinions after doing all this research and writing this book? It reads like a long string of facts rather than having a story-telling type of style. It also lacks the authorsý opinion.

Before I began reading this book, I was perplexed by the title. I felt that the title implies is if the baby is not breastfed the baby will die. Since we are living in the present day, I wondered if the author was implying that a non-breastfed baby born now would die if not breastfed; that was my first impression. I read ahead to find out that the title is based on an early 1900s public health dept. campaign to promote breastfeeding and discourage feeding baby cow milk supplements in lieu of breastmilk. This was at a time when the shipping and storage conditions of cow milk were so poor that much of the cow milk that was available to parents to feed their babies was high in bacteria that resulted in many babies becoming ill and with large numbers dying because of the infection. It should also be noted that this campaign that said, ýDonýt kill your babyý also encouraged the infant not to smoke cigars and from drinking beer. On page 125 the poster ad-campaign image is given and it advises that parents avoid ýmeat, bread, potatoes, fruit, sweets, coffee, tea, beer, etc. and avoid the dread summer complaintý. The image also includes what looks to me like a cigar. The promotion side of the ad states ýmothers milk is best of all, lots of cool bottled water to drink, clean milk (properly prepared) from a clean bottle give only these and a baby will keep wellý. I found the image and the message very bizarre! I can understand wanting to reduce infant mortality but this campaign recommending against not giving a cigar and beer to a newbornývery strange! Yet the ad was not being extremist in recommending only breastfeeding, they had instructions for bottle feeding of ýclean milkýývery strange, as we all know, bacteria are invisible to the human eye and how could parents know which milk was not-tainted vs. tainted? The fact that the title of the book would be pulled from that bizarre ad campaign makes me question the entire booksý worth.

This is a documentation of the Chicago areaýs public health departmentýs efforts to promote breastfeeding in the 20th century and the negative impact on not breastfeeding (i.e. increased infant mortality). There are loads of references and the author clearly did spend a lot of time researching and documenting her findings, for that reason I will grant this book 2 stars instead of 1.

Great history og public health and Chicago.......2002-04-07

This book was very interesting. It covers not only breastfeeding in Chicago, but the history of the public health movement and its effects on peoples lives.

The Breast of the Earth: A Survey of the History, Culture, and Literature of Africa South of the Sahara

Average customer rating:

The Breast of the Earth: A Survey of the History, Culture, and Literature of Africa South of the Sahara
Kofi Awoonor
Manufacturer: Anchor Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0385070535

The Breast Cancer Wars: Hope, Fear, and the Pursuit of a Cure in Twentieth-Century America

Average customer rating:

A MUST READ for every woman
Frightening and fascinating. You must read it.
FIRST-CLASS HIDDEN HISTORY
A Very Important Book
An important addition to an important subject

The Breast Cancer Wars: Hope, Fear, and the Pursuit of a Cure in Twentieth-Century America
Barron H. Lerner
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Medicine | Subjects | Books

History | Special Topics | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Obstetrics & Gynecology | Specialties | Medicine | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0195161068

Book Description

In this riveting narrative, Barron H. Lerner offers a superb medical and cultural history of our century-long battle with breast cancer. Revisiting the past, Lerner argues, can illuminate and clarify the dilemmas confronted by women with--and at risk for--the disease. Writing with insight and compassion, Lerner tells a compelling story of influential surgeons, anxious patients and committed activists. There are colorful portraits of the leading figures, ranging from the acerbic Dr. William Halsted, who pioneered the disfiguring radical mastectomy at the turn of the century to Rose Kushner, a brash journalist who relentlessly educated American women about breast cancer. Lerner offers a fascinating account of the breast cancer wars: the insistent efforts of physicians to vanquish the "enemy"; the fights waged by feminists to combat a paternalistic legacy that silenced patients; and the struggles of statisticians and researchers to generate definitive data in the face of the great risks and uncertainties raised by the disease. And for this new paperback edition, Lerner has included a postscript in which he discusses the most recent breast cancer controversy: do mammograms truly lower mortality rates or do they lead to unnecessary mastectomies? In Lerner's hands, the fight against breast cancer opens a window on American medical practice over the last century: the pursuit of dramatic cures with sophisticated technologies, the ethical and legal challenges raised by informed consent, and the limited ability of scientific knowledge to provide quick solutions for serious illnesses. The Breast Cancer Wars tells a story that is of vital importance to modern breast cancer patients, their families and the clinicians who strive to treat and prevent this dreaded disease.

Customer Reviews:

A MUST READ for every woman.......2005-10-17

Barron Lerner's "Breast Cancer Wars" joins Ellen Leopold's "Darker Ribbon" as an eyeopening look backstage at the Breast Cancer Follies in America. They are both important books, and make many of the same points, but if you are of a mind to read only one history of this disease, make it this one.

Leopold's book, written from a frankly feminist (and that's OK)point of view is dry and academic. But as a frank feminist myself, I must say I much preferred Lerner's lively, even juicy, warts-and-all look at the nature of American surgeons and how they make their decisions. But be warned: like they say about watching sausage being made, it ain't pretty. In fact the chapter on super-radical surgery that was the fashion for a, thankfully short, period of time in the 1950's upset me so much that I couldn't sleep that night. Do NOT read that part at bedtime! The phrase "human remnant" used by one famous surgeon in referring to his patients - or what was left of them when he got through with them - still gives me nightmares.

Lerner is himself a doctor - he teaches internal medicine and medical history at Columbia, so he has an insider's knowledge and interpretive skills that Leopold lacks. In detailing why, exactly, it took nearly half a century for American surgeons to even agree to scientifically test the efficacy and safety of the radical Halsted mastectomy, Lerner exposes the thought processes that dominate the surgical profession. Trust me, you will never look at your doctors the same way.

His thoughts on the risk aversive, controling mentality of the American population, and how that is reflected in the kind of doctors and medical procedures we traditionally prefer - the mindset that allowed the Halsted and its horror chamber cousins to hold sway for so long - is particularly important.

Toward the end of the book, Lerner touches on chemotherapy - which is a case of poisoning the many in order to help a miniscule few. It is impossible not to see the similarities with the now discredited Halsted. Like the Halsted, chemotherapy is basically a sales job, with no studies that show it is very helpful at all to non-metastatic women. And yet, we risk averse, bigger is better, give it all to me Americans - and our doctors - are embracing it with the same mindless fervor as the radical mastectomy.

Wake up folks. Read this book - it is a must.

Frightening and fascinating. You must read it........2004-07-04

Before signing the consent forms for my lumpectomy, I asked my surgeon if there was a possibility that I might wake up from my operation without a breast. "No," he said, "we don't do that any longer."

Ah, but they used to. In fact, according to "The Breast Cancer Wars" it was standard procedure during most of the twentieth century for a woman to go under the knife for a biopsy and wake up without her breast, axillary nodes, and her chest wall muscles. If she were unlucky enough to be operated on in the fifties, she might also be minus an arm and part of her rib cage.

Chapter 4, "The Scalpel Triumphant: Radical Surgery in the 1950s" is truly grotesque to someone who had her own surgery in December, 2001. One surgeon of that middle decade even accused a colleague of "having performed a 'humanectomy.'" People who went in to the operating room with breast cancer might lose a whole forequarter (clavicle, scapula, and an arm). For reproductive cancers, there was an operation called the hemipelvectomy, "which required removal of the 'hind-quarter': a leg and an adjacent bone from the pelvis." A surgeon named Pack performed over 200 hemipelvectomies on men and women, acquiring the nickname 'Pack the Knife' from his admiring colleagues.

How did the war against cancer come to involve such radical surgeries? According to the author, surgeons gained experience with extreme operations during World War II, where they also learned about the life-saving qualities of blood transfusions and penicillin: "Indeed, the Surgeon General had reported a remarkable 96 percent survival rate among injured World War II military personnel."

When the surgeons returned from the battlefields, they were prepared to take extreme measures against an enemy more ancient than the Nazis. Cancer researcher Michael Shimkin later noted, "'surgeons went radical and then superrradical' during the decade following World War II."

I started reading this book fully prepared to despise William Halsted, the surgeon who invented the radical mastectomy and performed it first in 1882. However that was not to be the case. Halstead was a great surgeon and "believed that his operation, if performed early enough in the course of the disease, could substantially prolong the survival of patients"--as did generations of surgeons following his training and example, even though 75% of their patients were dead five years after surgery.

Even after statistics like the above, randomized controlled trials involving lumpectomies and follow-up radiation, womens' activism, better mammography, and a new theory on how breast cancer metastasized, older surgeons performed radical and modified radical mastectomies well into the 1980s--a century after Halstead performed his first. When speaking of one of the old-school surgeons who turned 80 in 1980, Dr. Susan Love, herself a notable breast surgeon, remarked: "It was sad. He had lived too long. He just couldn't make that critical jump."

Dr. Lerner has written a superb medical and cultural history of America's war against breast cancer. Women who are considering treatment options for breast cancer should, at the very least read Chapter 11: "The Past as Prologue--What Can the History of Breast Cancer Teach Us?"

FIRST-CLASS HIDDEN HISTORY.......2001-07-19

Like many others who have discovered this treasure of a highly readable but profoundly illuminating book. I fully agree with Dr. Susan Love, who called it a "riveting" story and "one of the best books I have read in a long time." As someone who has long been active in the women's health movement I am sure that THE BREAST CANCER WARS will become a fixture on the short list of "must have" titles for any patient or advocate. Dr. Barron Lerner is a gifted writer, a caring clinician(Associate Professor of Medicine and Public Health at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons) a distinguished PhD medical historian, as well as the devoted son of a breast cancer survivor whose "quiet perseverance in the face of a terrifying disease has been an inspiration." Thus, he brings a thoroughly rounded perspective to the history of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment that (to my knowledge) no other male physician has ever attempted, much less achieved. His fascinating descriptions of the central role that activist patients have played in forcing doctors to treat breast cancer more humanely, and, yes, believe it or not- more scientifically, is a major contribution to modern social and science history. Dr. Lerner's title is well-chosen, as he escorts us through the maze of controversies and "wars" that mark breast cancer diagnosis, treatment and prevention, showing them to be dramatic, amazing, frustrating, sometimes ridiculous, and often highly unfair to patients. While THE BREAST CANCER WARS is not a "how to" book it provides women- and men-with a wealth of necessary background and information that will enable them to become far more savvy and sophisticated on every aspect of any breast cancer discussion.

A Very Important Book.......2001-07-11

In trying to understand and have an appreciation for the larger perspective of Medicine, Doctors and the Medical/Cancer Establishment, I found "Breast Cancer Wars..." to be the most insightful and helpful book of its kind that I have read. And in seeking to understand my disease (Leukemia), and the process I have been going through, I have read dozens of books on Health, Healing, Cancer, Medicine, the Medical Establishment etc...

Dr. Lerner provides a comprehensive, readable and above all balanced book in which he examines all the factors which impact on the development of a cancer treatment in the U.S. And he maintains this sense of balance while examining what is one of the most emotional, sensitive and controversial areas in all of cancer diagnosis and treatment; Breast Cancer and the Radical Mastectomy.

What particularly distinguishes his writing is the way in which he is able to provide a clear, detailed history and narrative while exploring the human, cultural, political, societal and gender-related issues that have impacted on the development and treatment of Breast Cancer.

In this extremely controversial and politicized area, he does not look for, or find a villain; his is not an attempt to blame or demonize. And that is a great relief.

Instead, in discussing the individuals involved - the physicians who first espoused and continued to advocate the use of Radical Mastectomies and those who opposed it, the prominent women who elected this procedure for themselves, the women who began to oppose the Radical Mastectomy and who challenged the medical system, the women who used their influence and resources to initiate important cancer and support organizations - Dr. Lerner provides very human portraits which helped me to appreciate how and why these individuals developed their views, and how each one of them came to effect the course of the debate and the evolution of Breast Cancer treatment.

And he does not fail to convey the tremendous emotional, physical and psychological impact that these doctors, individuals and organizations have had on women coping with Breast Cancer.

I recommend this book to anyone who is trying to understand the context of an illness and treatment and the various forces, from individual to societal, which play a role in the treatment of disease in the U.S.

An important addition to an important subject.......2001-07-09

...From his book I learned about a number of feminist heroes who brought breast cancer to the spotlight. Nor does Lerner hesitate ot criticize physicians, when appropriate. In sum, the "Breast Cancer Wars" describes a series of troubling controversies with a great deal of even-handedness. Breast cancer patients and others concerned with this fearsome disease will surely benefit from Lerner's insights.

Master Breasts: Objectified, Aesthetisized, Fantasized, Eroticized, Feminized by Photography's Most Titillating Masters . . .

Average customer rating:

Excellent
Interesting insight, and fresh "views" of the breast.
Breast views.

Master Breasts: Objectified, Aesthetisized, Fantasized, Eroticized, Feminized by Photography's Most Titillating Masters . . .
Francine Prose , Karen Finley , Dario Fo , and Charles Simic
Manufacturer: Aperture
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Photo Essays | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0893818038

Book Description

The most revealing look at breasts.

Photographs of breasts are everywhere: in museums, on book covers, in fashion ads, and on posters. Alluring symbols of womanhood, breasts have fascinated generations of image makers. Here, for the first time between two covers, is the breast in photography: the titillating breast, the maternal breast, the aging breast, and the symbolic breast.

In Master Breasts, darkly witty political images of the 1970s jostle for space with Edward Weston's classic nudes; Nan Goldin's friends share pages with Robert Mapplethorpe's gorgeously sculptured models. From Alfred Stieglitz's classic studies of Georgia O'Keeffe to Mary Ellen Mark's vivid documentary portraits, they are all here. Other artists include Cindy Sherman, Imogen Cunningham, and Sally Mann.

A witty and reflective Introduction from the acclaimed novelist and essayist Francine Prose further links the images, while a monologue from Karen Finley's recent performance piece American Chestnut, "The Detective," reveals a young girl's anguish about breast-inspired catcalls and jokes and then sardonically calls for similar cultural treatment of the male anatomy. Finally, in Nobel Prize-winner Dario Fo's radically funny play The Story of the Tiger, the benefits of breast-feeding are celebrated as never before.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2004-11-17

THis is THE book for Big Breast lovers, which, in this modern age, is a relatively rare phenomenon.

Interesting insight, and fresh "views" of the breast........2001-04-07

Perhaps not quite what we expected. We (my girlfriend and I) are both interested in what roles the breast plays in sociology and in culture, and hoped this book would grant us some fresh perspectives.

There are very interesting and provocative (but I certainly wouldnt call them erotic by any means) images in this book, as well as some fascinating art. Some of it we really would love to have framed.

The images are suitable for anyone to look at, with only a few being tantalizing or vaguely... scintillating. It's the kind of book that is good to read sitting down with company and see how you and others react. Perfectly suitable for a bookshelf or coffeetable.

Breast views........1999-02-22

To use the words of Meema Spadola, breasts are symbols of sexuality, motherhood, and power. This book by Prose and Simic explores the spectrum of possibilities in this wide range of meanings. This is, though, photographic ART. Those who think that art should be readily pleasurable, appreciated, or liked may find themselves challenged by this format. If you feel that art should be challenging, you may find this book appealing. On viewing it one may be stimulated by novel and sometimes not necessarily pleasurable thoughts. This seems to contradict the implication in the title that there is something necessarily `titillating" here. (Certainly the concept seems to stretch more common notion what is exciting, nasty and fun). For that I would deduct two stars.

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