A Darker Ribbon: Breast Cancer, Women, and Their Doctors in the Twentieth Century

by Ellen Leopold

A Twentieth-Century Story of Breast Cancer, Women, and Their Doctors

In the first cultural history of breast cancer, Ellen Leopold asks how sexual politics have shaped the relationship between patient and physician, and how a disease recently shrouded in secrecy has become so public.

334 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Naomi · Rating 2 out of 5]

In case you hadn't noticed, this book took me a while to get through, partially because it's not the most exciting read and partially because I was reading too many cancer-related books at once. This was given to me by a friend who had to read it for a college class, so that might help explain my slowness as well.

At any rate, this was a book chock full of information and research about the history of breast cancer. It was especially interesting to read around the same time as I was going through Emperor of All Maladies since that book touched on breast cancer as well, but was written a bit more recently. Both highlight the fact that society puts a great burden of prevention on women and not as much emphasis on finding cures (although I could talk about my opinion on that separately). The parts I most enjoyed about A Darker Ribbon were the chapters that contained excerpts of writing from different women who were diagnosed with breast cancer in different time periods. It just reinforced the fear and anxiety that a cancer diagnosis causes, and also revealed how helpless even doctors are to help (although some doctors have certainly failed to admit it).

Overall, not the most exciting read, but was clearly a labor intensive research project that I'm thankful Ellen Leopold pulled together.