Judith Walzer Leavitt's Books

Typhoid Mary

Captive to the Public's Health

By: Judith Walzer Leavitt

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Typhoid Mary

Captive to the Public's Health

By: Judith Walzer Leavitt

Discover the forgotten story of Mary Mallon—the real Typhoid Mary—in this humanizing portrait offering a window into the ethical dilemmas of public health policy that continue to haunt us in the COVID era. She was an Irish immigrant cook. Between 1900 and 1907, she infected 22 New Yorkers with typhoid fever through her puddings and cakes; one of them died. Tracked down through epidemiological detective work, she was finally apprehended as she hid behind a barricade of trashcans. To protect the public's health, authorities isolated her on Manhattan’s North Brother Island, where she died some 30 years later. This book tells the remarkable story of Mary Mallon—the real Typhoid Mary. Combining social history with biography, historian Judith Leavitt re-creates early 20th-century New York City, a world of strict class divisions and prejudice against immigrants and women. Leavitt engages the reader with the excitement of the early days of microbiology and brings to life the conflicting perspectives of journalists, public health officials, the law, and Mary Mallon herself. Leavitt’s readable account illuminates dilemmas that continue to haunt us in the age of COVID-19. To what degree are we willing to sacrifice individual liberty to protect the public's health? How far should we go? For anyone who is concerned about the threats and quandaries posed by new epidemics, Typhoid Mary is a vivid reminder of the human side of disease and disease control.

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Page Count

356

Publisher

Beacon Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807095591

ISBN 13

9780807095591

Brought to Bed

Childbearing in America, 1750-1950

By: Judith Walzer Leavitt

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Brought to Bed

Childbearing in America, 1750-1950

By: Judith Walzer Leavitt

Based on personal accounts by birthing women and their medical attendants, Brought to Bed reveals how childbirth has changed from colonial times to the present. Judith Walzer Leavitt's study focuses on the traditional woman-centered home-birthing practices, their replacement by male doctors, and the movement from the home to the hospital. She explains that childbearing women and their physicians gradually changed birth places because they believed the increased medicalization would make giving birth safer and more comfortable. Ironically, because of infection, infant and maternal mortality did not immediately decline. She concludes that birthing women held considerable power in determining labor and delivery events as long as childbirth remained in the home. The move to the hospital in the twentieth century gave the medical profession the upper hand. Leavitt also discusses recent events in American obstetrics that illustrate how women have attempted to retrieve some of the traditional women--and family--centered aspects of childbirth.

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Page Count

297

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0198020910

ISBN 13

9780198020912

Make Room for Daddy

The Journey from Waiting Room to Birthing Room

By: Judith Walzer Leavitt

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Make Room for Daddy

The Journey from Waiting Room to Birthing Room

By: Judith Walzer Leavitt

Using fathers' first-hand accounts from letters, journals, and personal interviews along with hospital records and medical literature, Judith Walzer Leavitt offers a new perspective on the changing role of expectant fathers from the 1940s to the 1980s. She shows how, as men moved first from the hospital waiting room to the labor room in the 1960s, and then on to the delivery and birthing rooms in the 1970s and 1980s, they became progressively more involved in the birth experience and their influence over events expanded. With careful attention to power and privilege, Leavitt charts not only the increasing involvement of fathers, but also medical inequalities, the impact of race and class, and the evolution of hospital policies. Illustrated with more than seventy images from TV, films, and magazines, this book provides important new insights into childbirth in modern America, even as it reminds readers of their own experiences.

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Page Count

400

Publisher

Univ of North Carolina Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807887838

ISBN 13

9780807887837

Brought to Bed

Childbearing in America, 1750-1950, 30th Anniversary Edition

By: Judith Walzer Leavitt

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Brought to Bed

Childbearing in America, 1750-1950, 30th Anniversary Edition

By: Judith Walzer Leavitt

Based on personal accounts by birthing women and their medical attendants, Brought to Bed reveals how childbirth has changed from colonial times to the late twentieth century. Judith Walzer Leavitt's classic study focuses on the traditional woman-centered home-birthing practices, their replacement by male doctors, and the movement from the home to the hospital. Leavitt narrates the shifting power of childbearing women and their physicians, as well as changes in infant and maternal mortality. She also discusses how women have attempted to retrieve some of the traditional women--and family--centered aspects of childbirth. This 30th anniversary edition includes a new preface that reviews the burgeoning writing on the history of childbirth since its publication.

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Page Count

336

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190264136

ISBN 13

9780190264130

Brought to Bed

Childbearing in America, 1750 to 1950

By: Judith Walzer Leavitt

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Brought to Bed

Childbearing in America, 1750 to 1950

By: Judith Walzer Leavitt

This classic work reveals how childbirth has changed from colonial times to the present, including a new preface that discusses writings on the subject over the past three decades.

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Page Count

311

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190264128

ISBN 13

9780190264123

Typhoid Mary

Captive to the Public's Health

By: Judith Walzer Leavitt

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Typhoid Mary

Captive to the Public's Health

By: Judith Walzer Leavitt

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Page Count

356

Publisher

Beacon Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807095591

ISBN 13

9780807095591

The Healthiest City

Milwaukee and the Politics of Health Reform

By: Judith W. Leavitt

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The Healthiest City

Milwaukee and the Politics of Health Reform

By: Judith W. Leavitt

Between 1850 and 1900, Milwaukee’s rapid population growth also gave rise to high death rates, infectious diseases, crowded housing, filthy streets, inadequate water supplies, and incredible stench. The Healthiest City shows how a coalition of reform groups brought about community education and municipal action to achieve for Milwaukee the title of “the healthiest city” by the 1930s. This highly praised book reminds us that cutting funds and regulations for preserving public health results in inconvenience, illness, and even death. “A major work. . . . Leavitt focuses on three illustrative issues—smallpox, garbage, and milk, representing the larger areas of infectious disease, sanitation, and food control.”—Norman Gevitz, Journal of the American Medical Association “Leavitt’s research provides additional evidence . . . that improvements in sanitation, living conditions, and diet contributed more to the overall decline in mortality rates than advances in medical practice. . . . A solid contribution to the history of urban reform politics and public health.”—Jo Ann Carrigan, Journal of American History

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Page Count

320

Publisher

Univ of Wisconsin Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0299151638

ISBN 13

9780299151638

Make Room for Daddy

The Journey from Waiting Room to Birthing Room

By: Judith Walzer Leavitt

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Make Room for Daddy

The Journey from Waiting Room to Birthing Room

By: Judith Walzer Leavitt

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Page Count

400

Publisher

Univ of North Carolina Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807887838

ISBN 13

9780807887837

Hot and Bothered

Women, Medicine, and Menopause in Modern America

By: Judith A HOUCK,Judith A Houck

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Hot and Bothered

Women, Medicine, and Menopause in Modern America

By: Judith A HOUCK,Judith A Houck

How did menopause change from being a natural (and often welcome) end to a woman's childbearing years to a deficiency disease in need of medical and pharmacological intervention? By examining the history of menopause over the course of the twentieth century, Houck shows how the experience and representation of menopause has been profoundly influenced by biomedical developments and by changing roles for women and the changing definition of womanhood.

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Page Count

343

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674038819

ISBN 13

9780674038813

The Evolution of American Urban History, (S2PCL)

By: Howard P. Chudacoff

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The Evolution of American Urban History, (S2PCL)

By: Howard P. Chudacoff

This interesting and informative book shows how different groups of urban residents with different social, economic, and political power cope with the urban environment, struggle to make a living, participate in communal institutions, and influence the direction of cities and urban life. An absorbing book, The Evolution of American Urban Society surveys the dynamics of American urbanization from the sixteenth century to the present, skillfully blending historical perspectives on society, economics, politics, and policy, and focusing on the ways in which diverse peoples have inhabited and interacted in cities. Key topics: Broad coverage includes: the Colonial Age, commercialization and urban expansion, life in the walking city, industrialization, newcomers, city politics, the social and physical environment, the 1920s and 1930s, the growth of suburbanization, and the future of modern cities. Market: An interesting and necessary read for anyone involved in urban sociology, including urban planners, city managers, and those in the urban political arena.

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Page Count

288

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1315511045

ISBN 13

9781315511047

Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat

By: Grady McWhiney,Judith Lee Hallock

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Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat

By: Grady McWhiney,Judith Lee Hallock

In the Summer of 1863, Confederate General Braxton Bragg was commander of the Army of Tennessee, still reeling from its defeat in January at Murfreesboro, Tenn.

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Page Count

322

Publisher

University of Alabama Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0817305432

ISBN 13

9780817305437

The Failed Century of the Child

Governing America's Young in the Twentieth Century

By: Judith Sealander

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The Failed Century of the Child

Governing America's Young in the Twentieth Century

By: Judith Sealander

Charts the effort to use state regulation to guarantee health and security for America's children.

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Page Count

388

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0521535689

ISBN 13

9780521535687

Book's by Judith Walzer Leavitt

Typhoid Mary

Typhoid Mary

Brought to Bed

Brought to Bed

Make Room for Daddy

Make Room for Daddy

Brought to Bed

Brought to Bed

Brought to Bed

Brought to Bed

Typhoid Mary

Typhoid Mary

The Healthiest City

The Healthiest City

Make Room for Daddy

Make Room for Daddy

Hot and Bothered

Hot and Bothered

The Evolution of American Urban History, (S2PCL)

The Evolution of American Urban History, (S2PCL)

Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat

Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat

The Failed Century of the Child

The Failed Century of the Child

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