The decline of the birth rate is arguably the most important social change to develop in Canada in this century. But even those actively involved in contemporary struggles over abortion and reproductive technologies are largely ignorant of the historical context of the debate. The Bedroom and the State is the first comprehensive and balanced account of how Canadian men and women have sought to limit births and how public figures have attempted to turn such private concerns to political purposes. Hailed when it first appeared as a landmark history of Canadian fertility control, this second edition offers an updated conclusion and a new final chapter dealing with developments and events from 1969 to the present.

The Bedroom and the State: The Changing Practices and Politics of Contraception and Abortion in Canada, 1880-1996

History

McLaren, Angus

McLaren, Arlene Tigar

Americas

Oxford University Press

Was Canada immune to the racist currents of thought that swept central Europe in the 1920's and 1930's? In this landmark book Angus McLaren, co-author of The Bedroom and the State, examines the pervasiveness in Canada of the eugenic notion of "race betterment" and demonstrates that many Canadians believed that radical measures were justified to protect the community from the "degenerate." The sterilization of the feeble-minded in Alberta and British Columbia was merely the most dramatic attempt to limit the numbers of the "unfit." But in the decades prior to World War Two, eugenic preoccupations were to colour discussions of immigration restriction, birth control, mental testing, family allowances, and a host of similar social policies.Doctors, psychiatrists, geneticists, social workers, and mental hygienists provided an anxious Canadian middle class with the reassuring argument that poverty, crime, prostitution, and mental retardation were primarily the products of defective genes, not a defective social system. In explaining why biological solutions were sought for social problems McLaren not only provides a provocative reappraisal of the ideas and activities of a generation of feminists, political progressives, and public health propagandists but he also explores some of the roots of our not-so-latent racist tendencies.

Our Own Master Race: Eugenics in Canada, 1885-1945 (Canadian Social History Series)

University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division

In this path-breaking history of manhood and masculinity, Angus McLaren examines how nineteenth- and twentieth-century western society created what we now take to be the traditional model of the heterosexual male. "Inherently interesting. . . . Exhibitionism, pornography, and deception all have their place here."—Library Journal "An appealing wealth of evidence of what trials can reveal about the boundaries of men's roles around the turn of the century."—Kirkus Reviews "It is difficult to imagine a better guide to the most notorious scandals of our great-grandparents' day."—Graham Rosenstock, Lambda Book Report

The Trials of Masculinity: Policing Sexual Boundaries, 1870-1930 (Volume 1997) (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society)

University of Chicago Press

In this path-breaking history of manhood and masculinity, Angus McLaren examines how nineteenth- and twentieth-century western society created what we now take to be the traditional model of the heterosexual male. "Inherently interesting. . . . Exhibitionism, pornography, and deception all have their place here."—Library Journal "An appealing wealth of evidence of what trials can reveal about the boundaries of men's roles around the turn of the century."—Kirkus Reviews "It is difficult to imagine a better guide to the most notorious scandals of our great-grandparents' day."—Graham Rosenstock, Lambda Book Report

World

As anyone who has watched television in recent years can attest, we live in the age of Viagra. From Bob Dole to Mike Ditka to late-night comedians, our culture has been engaged in one long, frank, and very public talk about impotence—and our newfound pharmaceutical solutions. But as Angus McLaren shows us in Impotence, the first cultural history of the subject, the failure of men to rise to the occasion has been a recurrent topic since the dawn of human culture. Drawing on a dazzling range of sources from across centuries, McLaren demonstrates how male sexuality was constructed around the idea of potency, from times past when it was essential for the purpose of siring children, to today, when successful sex is viewed as a component of a healthy emotional life. Along the way, Impotence enlightens and fascinates with tales of sexual failure and its remedies—for example, had Ditka lived in ancient Mesopotamia, he might have recited spells while eating roots and plants rather than pills—and explanations, which over the years have included witchcraft, shell-shock, masturbation, feminism, and the Oedipal complex. McLaren also explores the surprising political and social effects of impotence, from the revolutionary unrest fueled by Louis XVI’s failure to consummate his marriage to the boost given the fledgling American republic by George Washington’s failure to found a dynasty. Each age, McLaren shows, turns impotence to its own purposes, using it to help define what is normal and healthy for men, their relationships, and society. From marraige manuals to metrosexuals, from Renaissance Italy to Hollywood movies, Impotence is a serious but highly entertaining examination of a problem that humanity has simultaneously regarded as life’s greatest tragedy and its greatest joke.

Impotence: A Cultural History

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Men's Health

From 1877 to 1892, Dr. Thomas Neill Cream murdered seven women, all prostitutes or patients seeking abortions, in England and North America. A Prescription for Murder begins with Angus McLaren's vividly detailed story of the killings. Using press reports and police dossiers, McLaren investigates the links between crime and respectability to reveal a remarkable range of Victorian sexual tensions and fears. McLaren explores how the roles of murderer and victim were created, and how similar tensions might contribute to the onslaught of serial killing in today's society.

A Prescription for Murder: The Victorian Serial Killings of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream

Europe

A Prescription for Murder: The Victorian Serial Killings of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society)

Reproductive Rituals (Routledge Library Editions: Ritual)

Originally published in 1984 Reproductive Ritual examines fertility and re-production in pre-industrial England. The book discusses both through anthropological research and reviews of contemporary literature that conscious family limitation was practised before the nineteenth century. The volume describes a surprising number of rules, regulations, taboos, injunctions, charms and herbal remedies used to affect pregnancy, and shows the extent to which individual women and men were concerned with controlling the size of their families. The fertility levels in England - as in Western Europe as a whole - were a very long way from the biological maximum in these centuries, and the book discusses the various reasons why this was so. The book reviews traditional ideas concerning the relationship between procreation and pleasure, drawn from a range of contemporary sources and discusses ways in which earlier generations sought both to promote and limit fertility. The book also examines abortion and shows how much evidence there is for its actual practice during the period and of traditional views towards it. This book provides a detailed understanding of historical attitudes towards conception family planning in pre-industrial England.

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Routledge

Originally published in 1984 Reproductive Ritual examines fertility and re-production in pre-industrial England. The book discusses both through anthropological research and reviews of contemporary literature that conscious family limitation was practised before the nineteenth century. The volume describes a surprising number of rules, regulations, taboos, injunctions, charms and herbal remedies used to affect pregnancy, and shows the extent to which individual women and men were concerned with controlling the size of their families. The fertility levels in England – as in Western Europe as a whole – were a very long way from the biological maximum in these centuries, and the book discusses the various reasons why this was so. The book reviews traditional ideas concerning the relationship between procreation and pleasure, drawn from a range of contemporary sources and discusses ways in which earlier generations sought both to promote and limit fertility. The book also examines abortion and shows how much evidence there is for its actual practice during the period and of traditional views towards it. This book provides a detailed understanding of historical attitudes towards conception family planning in pre-industrial England.

208p paperback, nice clean copy with name on endpaper, hardly used, uncommon title

Reproductive Rituals: The Perception of Fertility in England from the 16th to the 19th Century

Routledge& Kegan Paul

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by McLaren, Angus. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by McLaren, Angus

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by McLaren, Angus. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Bedroom and the State: The Changing Practices and Politics of Contraception and Abortion in Canada, 1880-1996

Our Own Master Race: Eugenics in Canada, 1885-1945 (Canadian Social History Series)

The Trials of Masculinity: Policing Sexual Boundaries, 1870-1930 (Volume 1997) (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society)

The Trials of Masculinity: Policing Sexual Boundaries, 1870-1930 (Volume 1997) (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society)

Impotence: A Cultural History

A Prescription for Murder: The Victorian Serial Killings of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream

A Prescription for Murder: The Victorian Serial Killings of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society)

Reproductive Rituals (Routledge Library Editions: Ritual)

Reproductive Rituals (Routledge Library Editions: Ritual)

Reproductive Rituals: The Perception of Fertility in England from the 16th to the 19th Century