Title: The Birth Of The Pill
Author: Jonathan Eig
Publisher: Pan Macmillan India
Review:
What does a revolution need? A dream, of course. What does
the achievement of that dream require? Research, plotting, manipulation, hard
work, dedication, agitation, resource and enough stubbornness to see it
through. Four pioneers — Margaret Sanger, George Pincus, John Rock and
Katharine Dexter McCormick — wrote a remarkable chapter of human history with
the discovery and propagation of the oral contraceptive for women. Jonathan
Eig, in his book ‘The Birth of the Pill,’ charts the evolution of birth control
while documenting the works of those involved in the process. He has written a
well-researched account of what went into making oral contraception available
to the masses.
The book though recounts of what’s already known about the
discovery of oral contraceptive, it also adds a significant amount to what went on
behind the scene. It is in no way a mere compilation of scientific jargon,
rather, the narrative provides a glimpse into the American society of that era.
It also highlights the political scenario of the said time period.
The book opens in 1950 with Sanger looking to science for a
contraceptive that women could control and that was extremely effective. There
was the condom and the diaphragm but while the former depended on the whims of
men and their preferences, the latter wasn’t a full proof option against
unwanted pregnancy. Against this backdrop, Sanger sought out Gregory Pincus who
was a former Harvard University biologist. He had been chucked out from the
university for his unorthodox methods. The press had nicknamed him “Victor
Frankenstein” for his efforts to mate rabbits in a Petri dish, experiments that
were the predecessors of in vitro fertilization. With initial funding from
Sanger, Pincus developed a hormone treatment for rabbits and rats that
prevented ovulation in the females of the breed. Sanger then enlisted
philanthropist and suffragist Katharine McCormick to fund the development of a
similar hormone treatment for women. Gynecologist John Rock, the fourth
“crusader,” teamed with Pincus on his research. By the mid-1950s, they had developed
a working trial of what is now universally known simply as “the pill.” These
activists and researchers made some dubious ethical choices like running human
trials on non-consenting asylum patients but it was for the greater good. Eig
doesn’t judge them for their shortcomings and gives the reader their freedom to
come to their own conclusion.
The breezy tone employed by the writer calls for an easy
reading. The use of medical terms has been kept to a minimum. But the book
tends to be repetitive and without a proper chronological order. At times the
narrative jumps around a lot creating unwanted confusion. Nevertheless, the
appeal of the history behind the inception of the contraception is worth
knowing.
Buy Link:
Amazon
About the Author:
Jonathan Eig, a former senior special reporter at the 'Wall
Street Journal', is the author of three highly acclaimed books, two of which
appeared on the 'New York Times' bestseller list. His first book, Luckiest Man:
The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig (Simon and Schuster, 2005), won the Casey
Award for best baseball book of 2005, his second book, Opening Day: The Story
of Jackie Robinson's First Season (Simon and Schuster, 2007), was named one of
the best books of the year by the Chicago Tribune, Sports Illustrated and the
Washington Post. In his third book, Get Capone (Simon and Schuster, 2010), Eig
discovered thousands of pages of new material on Capone, affirming his
trustworthy reporting reputation in what the New York Times called a
"multifaceted portrait," a "gore-spattered thriller," and
"as much a dark history of urban America between the world wars as it is
another mobster's life story." And in 'The Birth of the Pill', Eig again
tackles an enormous volume of unexamined personal correspondence in this original
and richly textured narrative.
* I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
** Picture courtesy: Amazon.in
