Free (Kindle) Inventing Motherhood: The Consequences of an Ideal [Social History]

[ATDrake]

Inventing Motherhood: The Consequences of an Ideal by the late English psychiatrist and author Ann Dally (Wikipedia) is her vintage non-fiction social history cum critique and reform manifesto on the societal history of the meaning of motherhood and myths formed around it, alongside contemporary experiences from herself and her patients, and a call for less restrictive role modeling, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press' The Odyssey Press imprint.

This was originally published in 1983 by Schocken Books and was later reprinted by HarperCollins.

Currently free @ Amazon (available to Canadians & in the UK and pretty much everywhere else worldwide that Amazon sells, since this is being done via their KDP Select exclusive-or-else program)

Description
“For many years I have been conscious of an impending crisis of motherhood in the western world, and this crisis is now upon us.”

Ann Dally starts with this dire warning, and in a concise, patient way, demonstrates that this is true.

Dally is a prophet: many of her greatest fears of motherhood have come to pass, but so have some of her hopes.

It is a stark portrayal of motherhood, going back as far as the Dark Ages and speculating on the future.

But despite its frankness, and its fears, Inventing Motherhood is, in many ways, a hopeful book.

By peeling away the myths of motherhood, Dally gets to grips with its problems and also its potential.

Herself a practising psychiatrist, Dally mixes in tales of motherhood from her own patients as well as historical examples.

Inventing Motherhood is a literary work filled with stories that are both intensely moving and sometimes frightening, providing useful and shocking lessons that we can learn from the past.