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Reviews
The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution by Jonathan Eig
curiouslyjade's review
3.0
Handles an interesting but tricky topic respectfully, but I found it a bit repetitive in style.
shannonjo's review
didn't realize how long it was but was interesting. might pick up again but in a fiction mood
spinningjenny's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
3.75
This was fascinating and also a VERY slow read. So many details, some interesting, some superfluous, most beneficial to the overall story of the pill coming essentially from a ragtag team with barely any money but a big dream.
ceemonkee's review
3.0
I didn't appreciate the way the narrative jumped back and forth, often going over the same period and events multiple times, which I found both confusing and boring. The author seemed to make a lot apologies for Margaret Sanger's involvement in the Eugenics movement, which I felt was really unnecessary and not well backed-up by facts. Much of the book is heavily focused on trying to describe what certain people were like, but without real substantiation.
cseibs's review against another edition
3.0
I found the book to be very "readable" despite the scientific background. The individuals themselves were more fascinating than the story of the pill. Too much was attempted in covering the stories of these four people and, as a result, they ended up feeling a little one dimensional. When the book became more about the people, I almost felt short changed when Eig tried to bring the story back around to the actual pill. A good but not great layman'a science history.
sidewriter's review against another edition
3.0
Straightforward, solidly-written and -researched history of the birth control pill. Eig brings together the major players, the culture at the time, and the salient facts that ultimately culminated in the pill being brought to market -- which includes some surprisingly shady behavior from those involved. The narrative is a bit bumpy with some confusing chronology and hamfisted attempts at cliffhangers, and there is nothing especially impressive about the prose. Once in a while, Eig’s own unconscious sexism shows, and there are a couple hanging questions -- did he interview any of the women involved with the “research” done on the pill? That seemed like an obvious missing piece. Nonetheless, this is an informative book about an interesting subject.