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Arguably her most important and influential book, this
controversial work, first published in 1922 by pioneering
birth-control advocate Margaret Sanger, attempted to broaden the
still-radical idea of birth control beyond its socialist and
feminist roots. Moving away from a single-minded focus on women's
reproductive rights to the larger issue of the general health and
economic prosperity of the whole human race, Sanger argued that
birth control was pivotal to a rational approach toward dealing
with the threat of overpopulation and its ruinous consequences in
poverty and disease. Through this book Sanger hoped to persuade the
medical establishment to assume control over contraceptive
distribution, and thereby to lessen the religious, legal, and moral
opposition that continued to restrict access to contraceptive
information. However important this book is to the history of
women's rights, it remains a very problematic work from our more
scientifically informed perspective today. In arguing for
population control Sanger made frequent reference to the then
fashionable "science" of eugenics. She also adopted its rhetoric,
using such callous phrases as "the feeble-minded" and the "unfit"
and advocating birth control as a means of limiting the breeding of
"defectives, delinquents and dependents." Although she incorporated
views and terminology commonly held in respectable medical and
scientific circles of the day, Sanger's writings on eugenics, and
this book in particular, have become fodder for her critics both on
the left and the right, who seek to diminish her achievements and
obscure what is ultimately a powerful feminist message: when women
gain greater control over their fertility, they will improve the
human race. This unusual and historically significant book is
complemented by a thoughtful and informative introduction by Peter
C. Engelman, assistant editor of The Margaret Sanger Papers
Project, who provides much insight by placing this work in the
context of the age and Sanger's life.
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