Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America [Hardcover]

Andrea Tone (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2001 | ISBN-10: 080903817X | ISBN-13: 978-0809038176 | Edition: 1

A down-and-out sausage-casing worker by day who turned surplus animal intestines into a million-dollar condom enterprise at night; inventors who fashioned cervical caps out of watch springs, and a mother of six who kissed photographs of the inventor of the Pill -- these are just a few of the fascinating individuals who make up the history of contraceptives in America. Scholars of birth control typically frame this history as one of physicians, lawyers, and political activists. But in Devices and Desires, Andrea Tone breaks new ground by showing what it was really like to produce, buy, and use contraceptives during a century of profound social and technological change.

Tone begins with the passage of the 1873 Comstock Act, which criminalized the birth control business, and ends with the inventions of today (including Depo-Provera and Norplant). Along the way she assesses the social and economical effects of chemical prophylaxes kits for World War I soldiers, condoms, the Lysol antiseptic douche, and the 1973 Dalkon Shield disaster (among others). In lively and engaging prose, her book illuminates the industry's trails from an illicit trade located in basement workshops and pornography outlets to one of the most successful legitimate businesses in American history.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

There were the dark days of frequent unwanted pregnancies, quack remedies and backstreet abortions; then there was the Pill. Or so we often believe about the history of birth control in America. But the subject, as Tone, associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, shows, is much more complex. Indeed, our Victorian forebears were familiar with several contraceptive choices, from condoms to pessaries and douches, which were readily available from small shops or by mail order until the Comstock Act deemed them obscene in 1873. But the new law succeeded only in driving the contraceptive business underground, as regulations were inconsistently enforced. By the 1920s, birth control began to be seen as a public policy issue; activist Margaret Sanger, who focused particularly on birth control for the poor, was instrumental in gaining legitimacy for the movement by making contraception the purview of the medical profession. Her efforts led to the popularity of the custom-fitted diaphragm and, later, to the development of the Pill. Tone focuses on contraception as a matter of customer demand and market responses, while also dealing with major controversies, including the Pill's health risks; religious objections to it; alleged racism in birth control policy; and the Dalkon Shield tragedy, in which business decisions contributed to the marketing of an unsafe IUD. Bringing the story up to 1970, Tone ends with a plea for increased research, sex education and affordable over-the-counter options for both men and women. Although some might argue that condoms already fill this need, Tone points out the irony that "the most frequently used contraceptive in th[is] country by a wide margin is irreversible female sterilization." Though some readers may find its conclusions oversimplified, this overview remains lively and informative. Illus. not seen by PW.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Catholic obstetrician John Rock considered the pill a "morally permissible variant of the rhythm method" and assisted in its development. This is one of the many fascinating complexities found in the annals of contraception and recounted in these two books. U.S. historian Tone chronicles U.S. practices from the 1800s and Comstock era censorship, when underground cottage-industry products for both men and women thrived, advertised via euphemisms like "feminine hygiene." Under pressure from changing laws and Margaret Sanger, physicians gradually took over, touting first the diaphragm, then the pill and the IUD. As Tone recounts, condoms have remained popular; but lawsuits from medical methods and high consumer expectations post-pill have led to dampened development of new contraceptives and to sterilization's becoming popular. This account of the women who wanted to avoid pregnancy and the men and women who wanted to help them and profit from them is detailed, readable, and exhaustively referenced. For her focus on "the Pill," British historian Marks covers scientific development, testing, and use in the United States and beyond Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Marks's account is as detailed and well referenced as Tone's, somewhat more scholarly, and sometimes hard to follow since chapters are based on subtopics rather than time units. Her more medical/scientific detail and global perspective complement the coverage found in Elizabeth Watkins's On the Pill: A Social History of Oral Contraceptives 1950-70 (Johns Hopkins Univ., 1998). Both Marks's and Tone's books are recommended for academic and large public libraries, and the latter is appropriate for smaller public libraries as well. Consider also James Reed's Eve's Herbs (1978) about herbal birth control since ancient times. (Tone's illustrations not seen.) Martha Cornog, Philadelphia
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Hill & Wang; 1 edition (June 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080903817X
• ISBN-13: 978-0809038176
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,075,314 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Secret History of Sex and Birth Control July 17, 2001

By Barbara Seaman

Format:Hardcover

When I reviewed this extraordinary book for THE NATION Magazine (issue of June 11, 2001) my piece was entitled "The Secret History of Sex." It's fun to scoop the N.Y. TIMES.! The lead review in the NY Times Book Review for July 22, 2001 is also of DEVICES AND DESIRES, and is entitled "The Secret History of Birth Control."

DEVICES AND DESIRES is so original, so persuasive, so meticulously researched and documented that it overrides some of our most taken-for-granted assumptions and beliefs., It opens in 1873 when the Comstock law was passed in the U. S. Congress, banning both pornography and birth control devices. The new law must have made contraception known to some folks who had never heard of it before (or maybe the fact that it was banned made people think it might be fun) because birth control quickly grew into a huge bootleg industry, as popular as liquor was during prohibition, and offering many more products and options for both women and men than we have today. Some were dangerous, some were ineffective, but others were quite good and many couples doubled up on protection, with husband and wife each using one or more methods. The birth rate in the U.S. fell by more than half from 1880-1940, even though we were later led to believe by Margaret Sanger and others that until birth control was largely taken over by doctors,( in the 1930s) it was quite scarce. You will be astonished at the documented information in this book and mesmerized by the case histories of the colorful and inventive bootleg birthcontrol entrepreneurs. Tone's exhaustive research led her- like an ace detective or shoe-leather crime reporter (she is in fact a history professor at Georgia Tech) through an eight year coast to coast investigation of Post Office Department records, Federal Trade Commission transcripts (some with decaying diaphragms and condoms glued to the pages) American Medical Association Health Fraud Archives, credit reports from 19th century Dun and Co. collections, patents, love letters, arrest records, trial records, advertisements and trade catalogues, and "entrapment letters" from Anthony Comstock and others seeking to arrest the purveyors of contraception. To me- one of the most fascinating findings in DEVICES AND DESIRES is simply this: As every legislator knows, you can vote a measure into law but if you don't provide funds to enforce it the measure may remain a "paper tiger" Although Congress gave lip service to Comstock's prudish ideas, most members didn't support them with sufficient enthusiasm to vote money for enforcement. The" special agents" of the Postal Service who were, by law, required to chase down contraceptives and pornography (on top of their many other preexisting duties)were fifty-nine in number (nationally!) before Comstock was passed, and after passage the number was raised to sixty-three. You do the math. This book illustrates the great divide between "conventional wisdom"- and what an unconvinced and energetic historian can unearth. We all knew that the U.S. birthrate hit an all-time low in 1940. Why didn't we ALL question how this could have happened if it was true that there wasn't any contraception?

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Entertaining and Important History August 20, 2001

By R. Hardy HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

We have long been used to birth control as being legal, safe, and available. There was a long history of prudery on the subject, though, which continues to have repercussions on our society and our birth rates to this day. _Devices & Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America_ (Hill and Wang) by Andrea Tone, is a sophisticated examination of how Americans went from covertly using illegal contraception in the last century to medically approved versions during this one. It is a fascinating tale, full of passion, science, repression, American ingenuity, and Horatio Alger stories of making it big in the contraception business.

The dour presiding figure over all these proceedings is Anthony Comstock, who built himself up into a vice busting public servant, a special agent of the Post Office, and enforcer of the Comstock Act of 1873. He regarded contraceptives as obscenities, insisting for religious reasons that abstinence and the then poorly-understood rhythm method were the only moral means of birth control. Although many Americans agreed with him, Tone shows convincingly that they also were ready to use contraceptives and to tolerate their sale. The pictures of small time contraceptive entrepreneurs, filling a need that respectable manufacturers shunned, is fascinating. Frequently the owner of a contraceptive factory was a woman, or an immigrant, who made everything in a back room. It took a little know-how, some natural rubber, and some sulfur for the vulcanization process; a little capital could bring high profit. Julius Schmidt, having immigrated from Germany in 1882, went to work at a sausage casing firm, but realized that the casings could be made into something more profitable. Comstock busted him in 1890 for �selling articles to prevent conception.� Schmidt easily paid the fine, and eventually moved into the rubber trade, selling the still-available Sheik and Ramses brand condoms. Comstockery had its last gasp in 1965, when the Supreme Court struck down a Connecticut law forbidding contraceptives even from doctors to married women. These pages contain a fine description of the development of the birth control pill, and the debacle of the Dalkon Shield.

This is an amazing history of how we Americans have come to our current legal and safe birth control methods. Unfortunately, we do not use them very well. Tone�s book, full of vivid detail and very readable, demonstrates that we cling to the idea that abstinence is an effective medical and social policy. Pregnancy rates in America for those under twenty are higher than in any developed country except Hungary. In Sweden, by comparison, young people have sex more often, but also benefit from compulsory real sex education which includes instruction about contraceptives. They can get contraceptives at cost or free. Rates of pregnancy and rates of abortion are far lower than ours. Two thirds of our group insurance plans will not pay for contraceptive pills, and the bias against women in such plans is clear, since they will cover Viagra. This is an important history book that demonstrates that Comstock�s legacy persists.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars compelling, engaging and convincing history of brith control October 25, 2002

By Bruce J. Wasser

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

For nearly a century, from the advent of repressive Comstockery in the 1870s to the development of The Pill in the 1950s and 1960s, the history of contraception in our national history suggests several irrefutable truths. National and state governments, ignoring the realities of consumer demand for safe and effective contraception, have unsuccessfully attempted to repress not only the creation of birth control devices but have actively engaged in suppression of information about them.

Despite official opposition, a semi-covert, but vibrant underground market economy developed to satisfy the insatiable demand for methods to control sexual reproduction. Professor Andrea Tone's meticulously researched and felicitously written "Devices and Desires" is at once a survey of the technology of contraception, a political analysis of the struggle for women to obtain control over the reproductive lives and an engaging social history of the advocates, producers and consumers of contraceptive devices over the past century and a half.

Recounted through a series of analytical and chronological narratives, Professor Tone provides an interesting perspective on Anthony Comstock, whose name now symbolizes sexual prudery and repression. Tone comments that Comstock's fierce advocacy of governmental intervention and suppression of birth control contains its own class and ethnic bias. Comstock purposely ignored the fact that his most loyal supporters not only abetted, but profited from, the production of birth control devices. (Tone's exposure of Samuel Colgate's hypocrisy exemplifies this blatant double standard.)

Ironically, Comstock's purported success in nationalizing repression and supposed eradication the manufacture and dissemination of birth control products and information generated a robust, underground market-driven economy centered around contraceptive devices. With large-scale industrial giants eschewing production, a fiercely competivite, unregulated industry blossomed and produced its own Horatio Alter success stories, such as that of condom-king Julius Schmid, once arrested and later lionized for the same activity.

"Devices" also praises the extraordinary contributions of Margaret Sanger but notes the costs of her focus. Eventually losing her egalitarian radicalism, Sanger becomes responsible for the conversion of birth control from a market-generated phenomenon to a medically-controlled activity. Though she succeeds in legitimzing contraception, Sanger inadvertently works to narrow the range of women who could obtain access to the very services and products she so deperately wanted to make acceessible to all women.

Tone's history contains numerous wise and unexpected observations about the political and social impact of the battle to make birth control legal. Chapters detailing the controversial development of oral contraceptives and the re-emergence of the IUD help underscore the esential tensions of birth control in a nation where women consistently demand a safe-reliable product but their government sorely lags behaind clear public consensus.

This tension between technological ability and restricted social access to education and product results in our country's staggering rate of unwanted pregnancies. Professor Tone's spirited history suggests that the history of contraception in the United States has many chapters yet to be written.