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Conceiving Histories: Trying for Pregnancy, Past and Present

Name: Conceiving Histories: Trying for Pregnancy, Past and Present
Brand: MIT Press
SKU: 9780262049481
Price: 32.99 USD
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Contributors:

Isabel Davis, Anna Burel (Illustrator)

Publisher:

MIT Press

Binding:

Hardcover

Book Category:

Social Science, Health & Fitness, History

Book Subcategory:

Gender Studies, Pregnancy & Childbirth, Social History

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The product is eligible for a complimentary return within 30 days from the date of purchase. Furthermore, individual items are shipped within 24 hours of receiving the order.

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Specifications +

Release Date:

2025-02-25

ISBN 13:

9780262049481

Weight:

2.02 lbs

Size:

10.15 x 7.35 x 1.14 inches

Pages:

304

Mint Condition +

product description

Description

A fascinating and beautifully illustrated account of trying to conceive in both the past and the present.

Inspired by the author's own experiences, Conceiving Histories brings together history, personal memoir, and illustration to investigate the culturally hidden experience of trying to conceive. In elegant, engaging prose, Isabel Davis explores the combination of myth, fantasy, science, and pseudo-science that the (un)reproductive body encounters in pursuit of a viable pregnancy. The book chronicles the trying-to-conceive lifecycle arc from sex education at school, through the desire to be a parent, into the specifics of trying and struggling to conceive. It also looks back at conception throughout history to open a new vista on what we live with today.

A central argument of Davis's is that historical people lived with the unknown just like we do but were more explicitly able to acknowledge it. In an age of assistive reproductive technologies, the act of embracing uncertainty seems difficult. Although the topic of not conceiving is potentially painful, this is not a grim book; more than grief, it is motivated by curiosity, wonder, compassion, and even humor. With 108 full-color illustrations, Conceiving Histories is also a beautiful material object, an intentionally playful antidote and supplement to online search engines--the resort of so many embroiled in fertility challenges.

About the Author
Isabel Davis leads a research theme on Collections and Culture at the Natural History Museum in London, and she is Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London, and Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Reading.

Anna Burel is a London-based artist and illustrator whose artwork encompasses textiles, sculpture, drawing, photography, and collage. Her work investigates the female bodily experience through an exploration of history and traditional storytelling like myth and fairytale.

Isabel and Anna have worked together since 2015, holding an exhibition of their work in London in 2017.

Conceiving Histories: Trying for Pregnancy, Past and Present

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