The Birth of the Pill - How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution

We know it simply as "the pill," yet its genesis was anything but simple. Jonathan Eig's masterful narrative revolves around four principal characters: the fiery feminist Margaret Sanger, who was a champion of birth control in her campaign for the rights of women but neglected her own children in pursuit of free love; the beautiful Katharine McCormick, who owed her fortune to her wealthy husband, the son of the founder of International Harvester and a schizophrenic; the visionary scientist Gregory Pincus, who was dismissed by Harvard in the 1930s as a result of his experimentation with in vitro fertilization but who, after he was approached by Sanger and McCormick, grew obsessed with the idea of inventing a drug that could stop ovulation; and the telegenic John Rock, a Catholic doctor from Boston who battled his own church to become an enormously effective advocate in the effort to win public approval for the drug that would be marketed by Searle as Enovid.

Spanning the years from Sanger's heady Greenwich Village days in the early twentieth century to trial tests in Puerto Rico in the 1950s to the cusp of the sexual revolution in the 1960s, this is a grand story of radical feminist politics, scientific ingenuity, establishment opposition, and, ultimately, a sea change in social attitudes. Brilliantly researched and briskly written, The Birth of the Pill is gripping social, cultural, and scientific history.

About the author

Jonathan Eig, a former reporter at the Wall Street Journal, is the author of King, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, The Birth of the Pill, Luckiest Man, Opening Day, and Get Capone. He lives in Chicago with his wife and children.

Product details

• Authors: Jonathan Eig, Eig Jonathan
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.10.2017
• EAN: 9780393351897
• ISBN: 978-0-393-35189-7
• No. of pages: 416
• Dimensions: 142 mm x 211 mm x 25 mm
• Weight: 343 g
• Illustrations: 8 pages of illustrations
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); Non-fiction book > Politics, society, business > Politics; Sociology, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, SCIENCE / Philosophy & Social Aspects, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Abortion & Birth Control, TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Social Aspects, Social and cultural history, Ethical issues: abortion & birth control, Sociology: sexual relations, Impact of science & technology on society, Impact of science and technology on society, Sex and sexuality, social aspects, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Human Sexuality