I have never heard of this woman and it's too bad because all women should know her story! She was a pioneer in the field of women's medicine and condemned for it. She fought most of her life for the rights of women and their rights to their choices for their bodies. The author painstakingly did his ...more
‘...respectable, white, married ladies, the people who should be producing the next generation of upstanding American citizens were reneging on their duties in favour of family limitation. If they had fewer children, while the poor and immigrants continued to have such large families, would old stoc ...more
This was a very interesting book - more so because I knew little of the topic. I had never heard of Madame Restell, but found it fascinating to learn of women’s health practices in the past. The era featured was the 1800’s, yet I’m surprised that so little has changed. I remember when birth control ...more
First of all the audiobook narration is amazing. It is pleasant to listen and definitely highly recommended.
Secondly I would like to congratulate and thank to the author for the tremendous and thorough research that was put into this book to exist. Many thanks and kudos.
As I've gotten older, I've really liked reading about historical events and people. I like both digging deeper into well-known events as well as finding out about new items I haven't heard about. This book is the latter for me.
Madame Restell AKA Ann Lohman was a physician that attended to women's re ...more
The Trials of Madame Restell by Nicholas L Syrett is a detailed look at the campaign (still ongoing today) to limit female autonomy and increase male control by focusing on the many trials and public attacks on a prominent "female physician" of the period.
Earlier in the year I read another book abou ...more
Author Nicholas L. Syrett details, the legal trials and tribulations of Madame Restell, the most infamous of the 19th centuries female abortionists.
Starting from the beginning of her life, with her parents, in England, it shows how she meets her first husband and immigrate to New York, and soon ...more
I downloaded this audiobook because I wanted a different type of Nonfiction title and I was keen to break away from memoirs for a bit. As a feminist, and an unapologetic liberal, I was drawn to this story because I had never heard of Madame Restell nor any of the other fo ...more
This biography highlights the 19th-century reproductive healthcare provider known as Madame Restell. Operating clinics in New York City, she offered services including contraception, pregnancy care, childbirth, and abortions. As society shifted, she drew criticism as a threat to traditional views on ...more
Considering the reversal of roe vs wade in the USA, I was curious to learn more of the history of abortion in North America. I am well aware of the pro-choice and pro-birth sides, considering I have been on both sides of it. In the end, women are the ones who pay the price for men’s decisions on the ...more
Thoroughly researched and still accessible, The Trials of Madame Restell contextualizes the woman herself, her legal battles, and her immense impact (the reverberations of which are still very much felt today). Syrett follows Ann Lohman as she becomes the notorious midwife/abortionist Madame Restell ...more
The Trials of Madame Restell tells of a woman who went by the pseudonym Madame Restell in order to work as a women's physician in the late 1800s, providing women with birth control and abortions. This book truly is about the trials - I am an appellate attorney and I very much enjoyed the detail that ...more
This book was fascinating and full of the history of birth, abortion, and adoption in antebellum NYC. It was a great read that was full of court documents, newspapers, and testimony of the time. The author does a good job of pointing out how class and race affected not only who was looking for these ...more
I loved this book. In telling the story of Madame Restell, Syrett tells the story of the origins of abortion laws in the US. But it is not just a legal history here. This is also a great history of medicine. There was so much I hadn’t known. The storytelling was great and the pacing was very good ov ...more