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The Edinburgh Seven: The Story of the First Women to Study Medicine (in Britain)

09/18/2024
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Title: The Edinburgh Seven: The Story of the First Women to Study Medicine (in Britain)

Author: Janey Jones.

Publication info: South Yorkshire, England: Pen and Sword History. 2023.

Location: Academic eBook Collection

Description: Women have healed since the beginning of time, but accessing a formal degree in medicine was impossible for them in Britain until the late 19th century. In 1869, a group of women began arriving in Edinburgh to study at the medical faculty, led by the indomitable Sophia Jex Blake. They would eventually be known around the world as The Edinburgh Seven. They were delighted to become students of medicine and as Sophia said, they simply wanted'a fair field and no favour'. But some of the traditional professors at the university did not approve of women becoming practising doctors. The medical women would soon discover that they were welcome as hobbyists but not as competitors with male students. There were legal wrangles, court cases, personal attacks and even a full blown riot - all because some male medics wanted rid of the women. And the women did leave Edinburgh - without degrees. But they finished their studies in mainland Europe and came back as fully fledged doctors. In 2019, the University of Edinburgh awarded the Seven their degrees posthumously via current day medical students. At last, the right thing was done, but the struggles of the original Seven should never be forgotten. This is their story.

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From Whispers to Shouts: The Ways We Talk About Cancer
08/30/2024
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Title: From Whispers to Shouts: The Ways We Talk About Cancer.

Author: Elaine Schattner.

Publication info: Columbia University Press, 2023.

Location: Academic eBook Collection.

Description: It's hard today to remember how recently cancer was a silent killer, a dreaded disease about which people rarely spoke in public. In hospitals and doctors'offices, conversations about malignancy were hushed and hope was limited. In this deeply researched book, Elaine Schattner reveals a sea change—from before 1900 to the present day—in how ordinary people talk about cancer. From Whispers to Shouts examines public perception of cancer through stories in newspapers and magazines, social media, and popular culture. It probes the evolving relationship between journalists and medical specialists and illuminates the role of women and charities that distributed medical information. Schattner traces the origins of patient advocacy and activism from the 1920s onward, highlighting how, while doctors have lost control of messages about cancer, survivors have gained visibility and voice. The book's final section lays out provocative questions facing the cancer community today—including distrust of oncologists, concerns over financial burdens, and disparities in cancer treatments and care. Schattner considers how patients and their loved ones struggle to make decisions amid conflicting information and opinions. She explores the ramifications of so much openness, good and bad, and asks: Has awareness backfired? Instead, Schattner contends, we need greater understanding of cancer's treatability.

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Book Highlight: Stitching a Revolution
05/07/2024
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Title: Stitching a Revolution.

Author: Cleve Jones and Jeff Dawson. 

Publication info: HarperOne, 2000. Memoir, 304 pages. 

Available: For checkout at our Rancho Cordova campus library.

Topics: AIDS Epidemic, LGBTQIA+ history, activism, San Francisco, CA. 

Description: "Against the turbulent backdrop of politics and sexual liberation in San Francisco during the seventies, Jones recounts his coming-of-age alongside friend and mentor Harvey Milk--and, later, Milk's assassination and the ensuing riots that threatened to tear down all they had accomplished. But Jones's political aspirations were put on hold after the emergence of an insidious, unexplainable "gay cancer" that would soon become known throughout the world as AIDS. Demoralized by the tide of death and despair sweeping his community, brutally assaulted by gay-bashing thugs, and faced with the specter of his own positive diagnosis, Jones sought a way to restore hope to a world falling apart beneath his feet.

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Book recommendation: Seduced by Radium
11/22/2023
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Title: Seduced by Radium: How Industry Transformed Science in the American Marketplace. 

Author: Maria Rentetzi. 

Publication info: Pittsburgh, Pa: University of Pittsburgh Press. 2022. 

Location: Academic eBook Collection. 

Description: The discovery of radium by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898 eventually led to a craze for radium products in the 1920s until their widespread use proved lethal for consumers, patients, and medical practitioners alike. Radium infiltrated American culture, Maria Rentetzi reveals, not only because of its potential to treat cancer but because it was transformed from a scientific object into a familiar, desirable commodity. She explores how Standard Chemical Company in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania—the first successful commercial producer of radium in the United States—aggressively promoted the benefits of radium therapy and its curative properties as part of a lucrative business strategy. Over-the-counter products, from fertilizers to paints and cosmetics to tonics and suppositories, inspired the same level of trust in consumers as a revolutionary pharmaceutical. The radium industry in the United States marketed commodities like Liquid Sunshine and Elixir of Youth at a time when using this new chemical element in the laboratory, in the hospital, in private clinics, and in commercial settings remained largely free of regulation. Rentetzi shows us how marketing campaigns targeted individually to men and women affected not only how they consumed these products of science but also how that science was understood and how it contributed to the formation of ideas about gender. Seduced by Radium ultimately reveals how innovative advertising techniques and seductive, state-of-the-art packaging made radium a routine part of American life, shaping scientific knowledge about it and the identities of those who consumed it.

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