Witches, Midwives, & Nurses: A History of Women Healers (Contemporary Classics) [Kindle Edition]
Author: Barbara Ehrenreich | Language: English | ISBN: B0097DDWTW | Format: PDF, EPUB
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As we watch another agonizing attempt to shift the future of health care in the United States, we are reminded of the longevity of this crisis, and how firmly entrenched we are in a system that doesn't work.
Witches, Midwives, and Nurses, first published by The Feminist Press in 1973, is an essential book about the corruption of the medical establishment and its historic roots in witch hunters. In this new edition, Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English have written an entirely new chapter that delves into the current fascination with and controversies about witches, exposing our fears and fantasies. They build on their classic exposé on the demonization of women healers and the political and economic monopolization of medicine. This quick history brings us up-to-date, exploring today's changing attitudes toward childbirth, alternative medicine, and modern-day witches.
Barbara Ehrenreich is author of the New York Times bestsellers Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch, and, most recently, This Land is Their Land.
Deirdre English, the former editor of Mother Jones, is a professor in the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.
- File Size: 1408 KB
- Print Length: 114 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1558616616
- Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY; 2 edition (July 1, 2010)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B0097DDWTW
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #153,684 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #20 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > History
- #59 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Professional & Technical > Medical eBooks > Special Topics > History
- #92 in Books > Medical Books > Psychology > History
Originally published in 1973 and now in a second edition, "Witches Midwives & Nurses: A History of Women Healers" is a paperback account of feminist healers' history in Western Civilisation from the Middle Ages through the early 70's. The first publication was written in "An angry blaze" of feminine outrage, but the original "pamphlet" became an underground best-seller in the 70's according to the "Village Voice." Re-issuing the book today invites some re-examination of the same feminist issues that prompted its original publication, and the authors conclude: "We have not been passive bystanders in the history of medicine...Our enemy is not just 'men' or their individual male chauvinism: it is the whole class system that enabled male, upper-class healers to win out and which forced us into subservience. Institutional sexism is sustained by a class system which supports male power: There is no historically consistent justification for the exclusion of women from healing roles...Men maintain their power in the health system through their monopoly of scientific knowledge...Professionalism in medicine is nothing more than the institutionalization of male upper-class monopoly...we must begin to break down the distinctions and barriers between women health workers and women consumers....Our oppression as women health workers today is inextricably linked to our oppression as women (pp. 99-102)." "Witches Midwives & Nurses" includes the original bibliography of the 1973 edition. Published literature in the area was scant at that time. Lest we become complacent, "Witches Midwives and Nurses" reminds us that though we may have come far in the progression of feminist ideas and enlightened health practices and education by and for women, there is yet quite some distance to go.By Midwest Book Review
The premise of this book is the coming down through history of the gentle Wise Woman skills that are still used in various ways in Nursing today. It puts that together very well. It's a thought provoker. Good book to expand the thinking and realize how things have evolved And where they still exist in some form today.By Jean Spencer
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