Devices & Desires by Andrea Tone

devices & desires with sketches of contraception devicesDevices & Desires: A Historical of Contraceptives in America by Andrea Tone(2001)

Well written jacket copy so I will just start with that:

A down-and-out sausage casing worker by day who turned surplus animal intestines into a million-dollar condom enterprise at night; inventors who fashioned cervical caps out of watch springs; and a mother of six who kissed photographs of the inventor of the Pill — these are just a few of the fascinating individuals who make up the history of contraception in America.

Tone begins with the passage of the 1873 Comstock Act, which criminalized the birth control business, and ends with the intervention today (including Depo-Provera and Norplant). Along the way, she assesses the social and economic effects of chemical prophylaxis kits for World War I soldiers, condoms, the Lysol antiseptic douche and the 1973 Dalkon Shield disaster (among others).”

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