Margaret Sanger: A Life of Passion

Margaret Sanger became one of the most vocal advocates for birth control at a time when the mere mention of such things was considered not only taboo but a felony. She pioneered the first family-planning clinic—the forerunner to Planned Parenthood—and became a lightning rod for the cause. In recent years, though, Sanger has been largely cast aside by the movement she spawned. In this lively biography, the historian Jean H. Baker argues convincingly that Sanger deserves the vaunted place in feminist history she once held. Trained as a nurse, Sanger saw the dangers of unplanned pregnancy and made contraception her cause. Married and a mother at a relatively early age, she abandoned the trappings of home and family for a globe-trotting life as the figurehead of a movement. Notorious for the sheer number of her affairs, Sanger epitomized the type of “free love” that would become mainstream only at the very end of her life. That she lived long enough to see the creation of the birth control pill, which finally made planned pregnancy a reality, is only fitting. [Description provided by the publisher] HQ764.S3.B35