Review
A narrative history--illuminating and engaging--of what fathers actually did while mothers were giving birth over the past 80 years.--The Wall Street Journal
Illuminates men's involvement with the childbirth experience, adding fathers-to-be as vital players in understanding American childbirth history. . . . Highly recommended.--Choice
Amusing and absorbing throughout, this book is most provocative when it details the 'three P's': the 'place, privilege, and power' of childbirth that 'provides a lens through which to view larger issues of twentieth-century medicine and its inequalities,' class foremost among them.--The Atlantic Monthly
A serious and meticulous investigation of territory where few scholars have previously ventured. . . . [A] much needed addition to the blossoming scholarly work on childbirth history.--Women's Review of Books
A pioneering history. . . . A wonderful addition to the project of plumbing the Oprahatic melange of identity, sentiment, and personal need at the core of examined life in our times.--The Journal of American History
A requisite work for medical historians . . . also recommended for obstetricians, nurses and hospital administrators as they consider policies in the twenty-first century. . . . A highly convincing and well-written book, [this] serves as a basis for future scholarship, since it enriches our understandings of the cultural and biological event of childbirth while recognising the increasing importance of men in that process--Social History of Medicine
Leavitt uses dozens of humorous, nerve-wracking and often touching stories from fathers to bring these experiences to life.--Wisconsin Week
Should be read by anyone still doubting how important this change in men's roles was during the second half of the 20th century.--greatdad.com
Those who read Make Room for Daddy will benefit from the experience and likely will have a newly deepened respect for what their parents and grandparents went through as they grew their families. . . . Highly recommend[ed].--The Father Life
Extends beyond the history of childbirth and contributes to the fields of American social history, family history, social medicine, masculinity studies, and gender studies. . . . Contribute[s] important findings to the literature on women's health while simultaneously broadening our knowledge of larger trends in American history.--Reviews in American History
Review
Make Room for Daddy is a highly original work on a topic that has never been fully addressed by historians. Feminist scholars often recognize the need to examine the experiences of men in order to understand women's history and the impact of gender expectations on both men and women, but few focus on men with the depth and sensitivity evident in this study. This book strikes lots of emotional chords as well, and will appeal to men and women, scholars and nonacademic readers, and anyone who has gone through the process of becoming a parent or is contemplating the possibility.--Elaine Tyler May, author of Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era
About the Author
Judith Walzer Leavitt is Rupple Bascom and Ruth Bleier Professor of Medical History and Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
