The horrors of the half-known life. Male attitudes toward women and sexuality in nineteenth-century America, New York and London, Harper & Row, 1976, 8vo, pp. xiv, 352, £2.95 (paperback). Beginning with a general background consisting of Alexis de Tocqueville's view of the effects of democracy on American men and on their relations to women, the author next discusses the male domination of parturition in America and the important international standing of American gynaecological surgery in the

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... ineteenth century, including an account of J. Marion Sims. The third and fourth parts of the book deal with individuals: the Rev. John Todd (1800-1873), a prolific writer of books on advice for men; and Augustus Kinsley Gardner (1821-1876), an obstetrician and gynaecologist concerned with the social and political meaning of reproduction. The dominance of the male over the female as far as health, activity, and sexuality are concerned provides the central theme of this thoughtful and provocative book. It is a scholarly study with full documentation, and it provides the male case, to be set against the strident female claims, nowadays so numerous and uncritical.