Maternal Bodies

April 1, 2018

Throughout modern history, motherhood has informed, and in many cases, dictated the thoughts and lives of women. At the same time, women's attitudes toward motherhood and the ways the dominant culture prescribes how one should think, act, and feel about childbearing are often in direct and stark conflict. While the perception of the maternal body has changed over time, the tension between the lived and imagined experience has not. Focusing on a tumultuous 100-year period in U.S. history, Doyle (history, Salem Coll.) examines a vast and diverse array of primary sources to support her argument of how motherhood has become a woman's most important social role. The result is a complex portrait of the subject as it was represented in print culture from 1750 to 1850, along with the experience as described by women in diaries, letters, slave narratives, and interviews. From pregnancy and childbirth to breast-feeding and child care, the topics presented here continue to shape contemporary views of a woman's place and role in society. VERDICT Grounded in feminist theory and based on the author's dissertation research, this timely work takes on a scholarly subject in a readable way.--Linda Frederiksen, Washington State Univ. Lib., Vancouver

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