Blue
Regular price
€29.99
20th century America
A01=Rachel Louise Moran
advocacy coalitions
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
American motherhood
archival research
Author_Rachel Louise Moran
automatic-update
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HB
Category=JBSF1
Category=JM
Category=NH
Category=NHK
Category=NHTB
changing attitudes
COP=United States
cultural history
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
destigmatizing postpartum distress
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Language_English
legitimizing experiences
maternal mental illness
mental illness stigma
mother's battles
motherhood
normalizing struggles
oral histories
PA=Available
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
psychiatry
psychology
recognizing postpartum depression
secret history
shadows to light
softlaunch
survivor stories
women blamed
women's activism
women's fight
women's mental health
Product details
- ISBN 9780226835792
- Weight: 513g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 01 Oct 2024
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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A powerful look at the changing cultural understanding of postpartum depression in America.
New motherhood is often seen as a joyful moment in a woman’s life; for some women, it is also their lowest moment. For much of the twentieth century, popular and medical voices blamed women who had emotional and mental distress after childbirth for their own suffering. By the end of the century, though, women with postpartum mental illnesses sought to take charge of this narrative. In Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America, Rachel Louise Moran explores the history of the naming and mainstreaming of postpartum depression. Coalitions of maverick psychiatrists, psychologists, and women who themselves had survived substantial postpartum distress fought to legitimize and normalize women’s experiences. They argued that postpartum depression is an objective and real illness and fought to avoid it being politicized alongside other fraught medical and political battles over women’s health.
Based on insightful oral histories and in-depth archival research, Blue reveals a secret history of American motherhood, women’s political activism, and the rise of postpartum depression advocacy amid an often-censorious conservative culture. By breaking new ground with the first book-length history of postpartum mental illness in the twentieth century, Moran brings mothers’ battles with postpartum depression out of the shadows and into the light.
New motherhood is often seen as a joyful moment in a woman’s life; for some women, it is also their lowest moment. For much of the twentieth century, popular and medical voices blamed women who had emotional and mental distress after childbirth for their own suffering. By the end of the century, though, women with postpartum mental illnesses sought to take charge of this narrative. In Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America, Rachel Louise Moran explores the history of the naming and mainstreaming of postpartum depression. Coalitions of maverick psychiatrists, psychologists, and women who themselves had survived substantial postpartum distress fought to legitimize and normalize women’s experiences. They argued that postpartum depression is an objective and real illness and fought to avoid it being politicized alongside other fraught medical and political battles over women’s health.
Based on insightful oral histories and in-depth archival research, Blue reveals a secret history of American motherhood, women’s political activism, and the rise of postpartum depression advocacy amid an often-censorious conservative culture. By breaking new ground with the first book-length history of postpartum mental illness in the twentieth century, Moran brings mothers’ battles with postpartum depression out of the shadows and into the light.
Rachel Louise Moran is an associate professor of history at the University of North Texas. She is the author of Governing Bodies: American Politics and the Shaping of the Modern Physique.
