Items related to Fighting for Life (New York Review Books Classics)
New York’s Lower East Side was said to be the most densely populated square mile on earth in the 1890s. Health inspectors called the neighborhood “the suicide ward.” Diarrhea epidemics raged each summer, killing thousands of children. Sweatshop babies with smallpox and typhus dozed in garment heaps destined for fashionable shops. Desperate mothers paced the streets to soothe their feverish children and white mourning cloths hung from every building. A third of the children living there died before their fifth birthday.
By 1911, the child death rate had fallen sharply and The New York Times hailed the city as the healthiest on earth. In this witty and highly personal autobiography, public health crusader Dr. S. Josephine Baker explains how this transformation was achieved. By the time she retired in 1923, Baker was famous worldwide for saving the lives of 90,000 children. The programs she developed, many still in use today, have saved the lives of millions more. She fought for women’s suffrage, toured Russia in the 1930s, and captured “Typhoid” Mary Mallon, twice. She was also an astute observer of her times, and Fighting for Life is one of the most honest, compassionate memoirs of American medicine ever written.
By 1911, the child death rate had fallen sharply and The New York Times hailed the city as the healthiest on earth. In this witty and highly personal autobiography, public health crusader Dr. S. Josephine Baker explains how this transformation was achieved. By the time she retired in 1923, Baker was famous worldwide for saving the lives of 90,000 children. The programs she developed, many still in use today, have saved the lives of millions more. She fought for women’s suffrage, toured Russia in the 1930s, and captured “Typhoid” Mary Mallon, twice. She was also an astute observer of her times, and Fighting for Life is one of the most honest, compassionate memoirs of American medicine ever written.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Sara Josephine Baker (1873–1945) was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, and attended the Woman’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary. As the first director of New York’s Bureau of Child Hygiene from 1908 to 1923, Baker’s work with poor mothers and children in the immigrant communities of New York City dramatically reduced maternal and child mortality and became a model for cities across the country. On two occasions she helped to track down Mary Mallon, the cook who came to be known as Typhoid Mary. Baker wrote fifty journal articles and more than two hundred pieces for the popular press about preventive medicine, as well as six books: Healthy Babies, Healthy Mothers, Healthy Children (all 1920), The Growing Child (1923), Child Hygiene (1925), and her autobiography, Fighting for Life (1939). In the 1930s Baker, along with her partner of many years, the novelist Ida Wylie, and their friend Dr. Louise Pearce, moved to a two-hundred-year-old farm in New Jersey, where she lived until her death.
Helen Epstein is a writer specializing in public health and an adjunct professor at Bard College. She has advised numerous organizations, including the United States Agency for International Development, the World Bank, Human Rights Watch, and UNICEF. She is the author of The Invisible Cure: Why We Are Losing the Fight Against AIDS in Africa and has contributed articles to many publications, including The New York Review of Books and The New York Times Magazine.
Review:
Helen Epstein is a writer specializing in public health and an adjunct professor at Bard College. She has advised numerous organizations, including the United States Agency for International Development, the World Bank, Human Rights Watch, and UNICEF. She is the author of The Invisible Cure: Why We Are Losing the Fight Against AIDS in Africa and has contributed articles to many publications, including The New York Review of Books and The New York Times Magazine.
“Baker was the first director of a children’s public health agency, and the first woman to get a doctorate in public health. She tangled repeatedly with Typhoid Mary. More important, her ideas saved thousands of lives and permanently changed the focus and mission of public health. Her just-reissued 1939 autobiography proves to be one of those magical books that reaches effortlessly through time, as engaging and as thought-provoking as if it were written now.” —The New York Times
“Dr. Baker shines not only for her contributions to public health and social policy, but also for her work as a woman in government administration, supervising a staff that included many male physicians. Her work made her a leading figure in public health and the New York City Bureau of Child Hygiene became a model for similar programs in other cities, as well as for the United States Children’s Bureau.” —U.S. National Library of Medicine
“Rather than spending her time swanning about town, Josephine Baker became a pioneer, dedicating her life to the field of preventive health care for children.” —Anthony Bourdain
“Dr. Baker shines not only for her contributions to public health and social policy, but also for her work as a woman in government administration, supervising a staff that included many male physicians. Her work made her a leading figure in public health and the New York City Bureau of Child Hygiene became a model for similar programs in other cities, as well as for the United States Children’s Bureau.” —U.S. National Library of Medicine
“Rather than spending her time swanning about town, Josephine Baker became a pioneer, dedicating her life to the field of preventive health care for children.” —Anthony Bourdain
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherNYRB Classics
- Publication date2013
- ISBN 10 1590177061
- ISBN 13 9781590177068
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages304
- Rating
Buy New
Learn more about this copy
US$ 12.00
Shipping:
US$ 2.64
Within U.S.A.
Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace
Seller Image
Fighting for Life
Published by
NYRB Classics
(2013)
ISBN 10: 1590177061
ISBN 13: 9781590177068
New
Softcover
Quantity: 5
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 19795758-n
Buy New
US$ 12.00
Convert currency
Seller Image
Fighting for Life (New York Review Books Classics) by Baker, S. Josephine [Paperback ]
Published by
NYRB Classics
(2013)
ISBN 10: 1590177061
ISBN 13: 9781590177068
New
Soft Cover
Quantity: 10
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9781590177068
Buy New
US$ 14.65
Convert currency
Stock Image
Fighting for Life Format: Paperback
Published by
Penguin Random House
(2013)
ISBN 10: 1590177061
ISBN 13: 9781590177068
New
Softcover
Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. Brand New. Seller Inventory # 9781590177068
Buy New
US$ 11.94
Convert currency
Stock Image
Fighting For Life
Published by
Little Bookroom
(2013)
ISBN 10: 1590177061
ISBN 13: 9781590177068
New
Softcover
Quantity: 3
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. pp. 304. Seller Inventory # 2697024845
Buy New
US$ 17.82
Convert currency
Stock Image
Fighting for Life (New York Review Books Classics)
Published by
NYRB Classics
(2013)
ISBN 10: 1590177061
ISBN 13: 9781590177068
New
Softcover
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. Book is in NEW condition. 0.71. Seller Inventory # 1590177061-2-1
Buy New
US$ 24.41
Convert currency
Stock Image
Fighting for Life (New York Review Books Classics)
Published by
NYRB Classics
(2013)
ISBN 10: 1590177061
ISBN 13: 9781590177068
New
Softcover
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. New! This book is in the same immaculate condition as when it was published 0.71. Seller Inventory # 353-1590177061-new
Buy New
US$ 24.42
Convert currency
Stock Image
Fighting for Life (New York Review Books Classics)
Published by
NYRB Classics
(2013)
ISBN 10: 1590177061
ISBN 13: 9781590177068
New
Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Brand New Copy. Seller Inventory # BBB_new1590177061
Buy New
US$ 21.45
Convert currency
Stock Image
Fighting for Life (New York Review Books Classics)
Published by
NYRB Classics
(2013)
ISBN 10: 1590177061
ISBN 13: 9781590177068
New
Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_1590177061
Buy New
US$ 21.46
Convert currency
Stock Image
Fighting For Life
Published by
Little Bookroom
(2013)
ISBN 10: 1590177061
ISBN 13: 9781590177068
New
Softcover
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. pp. 304. Seller Inventory # 96453778
Buy New
US$ 21.12
Convert currency
Stock Image
Fighting for Life (New York Review Books Classics)
Published by
NYRB Classics
(2013)
ISBN 10: 1590177061
ISBN 13: 9781590177068
New
Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New Copy. Customer Service Guaranteed. Seller Inventory # think1590177061
Buy New
US$ 28.00
Convert currency