If Nursing Clio were a work of historical fiction set in England in the early 19th century, it would be […]
Sex Lives
For those of us who teach pre-modern English history and literature, there’s a conversation that happens nearly every semester. When […]
The Intimate History of Confinement
From the first page, it’s clear that Dr. Jessica Cox’s Confinement: The Hidden History of Maternal Bodies in Nineteenth-Century Britain […]
Remembering the Forgotten “Black Angels”
Many historians, including myself, have told the story of New York City’s Sea View Hospital, a tuberculosis sanatorium that operated […]
Bishops and Politicians in the Delivery Room: A Review of Bishops and Bodies: Reproductive Care in American Catholic Hospitals
“There are some situations where the mother may in fact die along with her child. But—and this is the Catholic […]
Race and Early American Medical Schools: Review of Christopher D.E. Willoughby’s Masters of Health: Racial Science and Slavery in U.S. Medical Schools
In 2017, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts announced that it would stop using race as a factor […]
Which Foods Aren’t Disgusting? On Carla Cevasco’s Violent Appetites
It has been a privilege to read Violent Appetites, the latest installment of a debate about hangriness that unfolded at […]
Menstrual Advocacy Is Flowing and Flowering
When I was researching my first book, The Modern Period: Menstruation in Twentieth-Century America (2009), one of the most frequent […]
Family Connections: Melissa Fu’s Peach Blossom Spring
“To know a story is to carry it always, etched in his bones, even if dormant for decades.” (Melissa Fu, […]
Reckoning with the History of Racial Marketing of Menthol Cigarettes
In Pushing Cool, Dr. Keith Wailoo presents a sixty-year history of menthol cigarettes becoming a racialized product. Wailoo has written […]