Without children : the long history of not being a mother / Peggy O'Donnell Heffington.
"From Joan of Arc to Queen Elizabeth I, to Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony, to Sally Ride and Jennifer Aniston, history is full of women without children. Some chose to forgo reproduction in order to pursue intellectually satisfying work-a tension noted by medieval European nuns, 1970s women's liberationists, and modern professionals alike. Some refused to bring children into a world beset by famine, pollution, or climate change. For others, childlessness was involuntary: infertility has been a source of anguish all the way back to the biblical Hannah. But most women without children didn't--and don't--perceive themselves as either proudly childfree or tragically barren. Seventeenth century French colonists in North America, struggling without the kind of community support they enjoyed in their mother country, found themselves postponing children until a better moment that, for many of them, never arrived. It is women like these-whose ambivalence throughout their child-bearing years inevitably makes their choice for them-that make up the vast majority of millennials without children in the United States. Drawing on deep archival research and her own experience as a woman without children, historian Peggy O'Donnell shows modern women who are struggling to build lives and to figure out whether those lives allow for children that they are part of a long historical lineage-and that they are certainly not alone"-- Provided by publisher.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781541675575
- ISBN: 1541675576
- Physical Description: x, 245 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 24 cm
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York, NY : Seal Press, 2023.
Content descriptions
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Childlessness. Childlessness > Social aspects. Women > Psychology. Interpersonal relations > Psychological aspects. |
Available copies
- 10 of 12 copies available at SPARK Libraries.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 12 total copies.
Show Only Available Copies
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Albright Memorial Library | 306.85 ODONNEL (Text) | 50686016296522 | Adult Nonfiction | Available | - |
Altoona Area Public Library | 306.85 ODO (Text) | 33240005162782 | Adult Nonfiction | Available | - |
Cambria County Library | 306.85 O266w (Text) | 85131001878413 | CACM Non-Fiction | Available | - |
Exeter Community Library | 306.85 ODO (Text) | 33249025534870 | Non-fiction | Available | - |
Indian Valley Public Library | 306.85 O'Donnell Heffington History (Text) | 39427103736997 | Nonfiction Room: Adult Nonfiction | Available | - |
Kreutz Creek Valley Library | Adults 306.85 HEF Nonfiction (Text) | 34261000601532 | Adult Area New | Available | - |
Littlestown Library | 306.85 O'DONNELL HEFFINGTON (Text)
Endowment:
Loris S. Catchings Named Endowment, 2023
|
35740635943947 | Nonfiction | Available | - |
Lower Macungie Library | 306.85 ODO (Text) | 33400001601759 | New Adult Nonfiction | Checked Out | 05/06/2024 |
Reading Public Library RPL - Main | 306.85 Odo (Text) | 33223009031435 | Non-fiction | Available | - |
Bethlehem Main Library | 306.85 (Text) | 33062009727679 | Adult Nonfiction | Available | - |
Summary:
"From Joan of Arc to Queen Elizabeth I, to Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony, to Sally Ride and Jennifer Aniston, history is full of women without children. Some chose to forgo reproduction in order to pursue intellectually satisfying work-a tension noted by medieval European nuns, 1970s women's liberationists, and modern professionals alike. Some refused to bring children into a world beset by famine, pollution, or climate change. For others, childlessness was involuntary: infertility has been a source of anguish all the way back to the biblical Hannah. But most women without children didn't--and don't--perceive themselves as either proudly childfree or tragically barren. Seventeenth century French colonists in North America, struggling without the kind of community support they enjoyed in their mother country, found themselves postponing children until a better moment that, for many of them, never arrived. It is women like these-whose ambivalence throughout their child-bearing years inevitably makes their choice for them-that make up the vast majority of millennials without children in the United States. Drawing on deep archival research and her own experience as a woman without children, historian Peggy O'Donnell shows modern women who are struggling to build lives and to figure out whether those lives allow for children that they are part of a long historical lineage-and that they are certainly not alone"--