Devices and Desires A History of Contraceptives in America

by Tone, Andrea

• ISBN13: 9780809038169
• ISBN10: 0809038161
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-05-01
• Publisher: Hill and Wang

Summary

From thriving black market to big business, the commercialization of birth control in the United States InDevices and Desires, Andrea Tone breaks new ground by showing what it was really like to buy, produce, and use contraceptives during a century of profound social and technological change. 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 individuals who make up this riveting story. Andrea Tone, an associate professor of history at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is the author ofThe Business of Benevolenceand the editor ofControlling Reproduction: An American History. She lives in Decatur, Georgia. A down-and-out sausage case 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 Pillthese are just a few of the fascinating individuals who make up the history of contraception in America. Scholars of birth control typically frame its history as one of physicians, lawmakers, and political activists. But inDevices and Desires, Andrea Tone breaks new ground by showing what it was really like to buy, produce, and use contraceptives during a century of profound social and technological change. She combines lively portraits of figures with a thorough history of technological and industrial developments. Tone begins with the passage of the 1873 Comstock Act, which criminalized the birth control business, and ends with the inventions of 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). In lively and engaging prose, her book illuminates the industry's transformation from an illicit trade located in basement workshops and pornography outlets to one of the most successful, legitimate businesses in American history. "Marvelously eye-opening . . . Brings an original dimension to the story by recounting the development of the American contraceptive industry, and demonstrating its resilience in the face of militant attempts to suppress it . . . Tone convincingly upends [long-held views and] offers fascinating vignettes."Daniel J. Kevles,The New York Times Book Review "Marvelously eye-opening . . . Brings an original dimension to the story by recounting the development of the American contraceptive industry, and demonstrating its resilience in the face of militant attempts to suppress it . . . Tone convincingly upends [long-held views and] offers fascinating vignettes."Daniel J. Kevles,The New York Times Book Review "Once in a while, you come across a book that is so original, so persuasive, so meticulously researched and documented that it overrides some of your most taken-for-granted assumptions and beliefs.Devices and Desiresis such a work."Barbara Seaman,The Nation "The best historians are great detectives, able both to ferret out facts hidden beneath the apparent surface of events and to construct new narratives that make those facts convincing. Andrea Tone is such a historian . . . [She] employs superb research skills to investigate questions of business and social history in three periods: the black market era of the late nineteenth century, the time of growing legitimacy during the first half of the twentieth, and the years of new technology and medicalization following World War II. Drawing effectively on

Author Biography

Andrea Tone is associate professor of history at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. xv
Comstockery
1873	p. 3
The Limits of the Law	p. 25
Contraceptive Entrepreneurs	p. 47
Black-Market Birth Control	p. 67
From Smut to Science
Salute to Prophylaxis	p. 91
A Medical Fit	p. 117
Feminine Hygiene	p. 151
Condom Kings	p. 183
The Medicalization of Contraceptives
Developing the Pill	p. 203
The Pill in Practice	p. 233
Searching for Something Better	p. 261
Epilogue: The Contraceptive Conundrum	p. 285
Notes	p. 293
Index	p. 355
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