Say Anarcha : : a Young Woman, a Devious Surgeon, and the Harrowing Birth of Modern Women's Health
Book - 2023 618.1 Ha, Black Studies 618.1 Ha, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / Science & Technology / Jackson, Anarcha 2 On Shelf No requests on this item
Sign in to request
Locations
Call Number: 618.1 Ha, Black Studies 618.1 Ha, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / Science & Technology / Jackson, Anarcha
On Shelf At: Downtown Library
Location & Checkout Length | Call Number | Checkout Length | Item Status |
---|---|---|---|
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout |
618.1 Ha | 4-week checkout | On Shelf |
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout |
Black Studies 618.1 Ha | 4-week checkout | On Shelf |
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout |
Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / Science & Technology / Jackson, Anarcha | 4-week checkout | Due 05-23-2024 |
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout |
Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / Science & Technology / Jackson, Anarcha | 4-week checkout | Due 05-01-2024 |
"In 1846, a young surgeon, J. Marion Sims ("The Father of Gynecology"), began several years of experimental surgeries on a young enslaved woman known as Anarcha ("The Mother of Gynecology"). This series of procedures-performed without anesthesia and resulting in Anarcha's so-called "cure"-forever altered the path of women's health. Despite brutal practices and failed techniques, Sims proclaimed himself the curer of obstetric fistula, a horrific condition that had stymied the medical world for centuries. Parlaying supposed success to the founding of a new hospital in New York City-where he conducted additional dangerous experiments on Irish women-Sims went on to a profitable career treating gentry and royalty in Europe, becoming one of the world's first celebrity surgeons. Medical text after medical text hailed Anarcha as a pivotal figure in the history of medicine, but little was recorded about the woman herself. Through extensive research, author J. C. Hallman has unearthed the first evidence ever found of Anarcha's life that did not come from Sims's suspect reports. With incredible tenacity, Hallman traced Anarcha's path from her beginnings on a Southern plantation to the backyard clinic where she was subjected to scores of painful surgical experiments, to her years after in Richmond and New York City, and to her final resting place in a lonely Virginia forest. When Hallman first set out to find Anarcha, the world was just beginning to grapple with the history of white supremacy and its connection to racial health disparities exposed by COVID-19 and the disproportionate number of Black women who die while giving birth. In telling the stories of the "Mother" and "Father" of gynecology, Say Anarcha excavates the history of a heroic enslaved woman and deconstructs the biographical smokescreen of a surgeon whom history has falsely enshrined as a heroic pioneer. Kin in spirit to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Hallman's dual biographical narratives tell a single story that corrects errors calcified in history and illuminates the sacrifice of a young woman who changed the world only to be forgotten by it-until now"-- Provided by publisher.
REVIEWS & SUMMARIES
Publishers Weekly ReviewSummary / Annotation
Table of Contents
Author Notes
COMMUNITY REVIEWS
No community reviews. Write one below!
PUBLISHED
New York : Henry Holt and Company, 2023.
Year Published: 2023
Description: xxiv, 417 pages : illustrations 24 cm
Language: English
Format: Book
ISBN/STANDARD NUMBER
9781250868466
1250868467
SUBJECTS
Sims, J. Marion -- 1813-1883.
Jackson, Anarcha, -- approximately 1821-1869.
Human experimentation in medicine -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
Gynecologists -- United States -- Biography.
Fistula, Vesico-vaginal -- Treatment.
Gynecology -- History -- 19th century.
Medical ethics -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
Enslaved women -- United States -- Biography.
Biographies.