Circumcision: A History Of The World's Most Controversial Surgery Paperback – February 28, 2001
Author: Visit Amazon's David Gollaher Page | Language: English | ISBN: 0465026532 | Format: PDF, EPUB
Circumcision: A History Of The World's Most Controversial Surgery – February 28, 2001
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Amazon.com Review
More than a million infant boys are circumcised every year in America, the highest occurrence of this procedure in the world. Why? Out of sheer cultural habit, concludes David Gollaher in his groundbreaking study, Circumcision. The tremendous momentum behind Gollaher's account is generated by one simple question: what is known about this most common of procedures? Alarmingly, precious little. Gollaher remedies that problem by tracing the historical roots of circumcision as a rite of passage into manhood in various ancient cultures before bringing the reader to 19th-century America, when circumcision rates skyrocketed through endorsements by the nascent American medical profession, which credited circumcision with exaggerated health benefits. Circumcision would eventually turn into a mark of class distinction, and the surgery would become entrenched in modern medical practices, despite scant study of its benefits, dangers, or side effects. Gollaher is to be commended for maintaining an even perspective on a practice that is sure to become increasingly controversial; he allows the research itself to fascinate and illuminate. As expected, there are many unsettling graphic descriptions in this book, but its most horrifying revelation is its most casual: the incontrovertible fact that circumcision remains the least understood--yet most widely practiced--surgery in the United States. --Sumi Hahn Almquist --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"A fascinating and comprehensive history of the most common surgical procedure in the U.S. . . .Informative, highly readable, and completely painless." -- Kirkus Reviews
"The crossed-legs read of the year." -- Salon.com
"The crossed-legs read of the year." -- Salon.com
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Direct download links available for Circumcision: A History Of The World's Most Controversial Surgery Paperback – February 28, 2001
- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Basic Books (February 28, 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0465026532
- ISBN-13: 978-0465026531
- Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #741,109 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
You might think that the most common surgery in the United States would also be the least controversial-an operation whose medical necessity and benefits have proved beyond question. And you would be wrong. As this fascinating history of that procedure makes clear, circumcision is rooted not in medical science, but in the deepest recesses of religion and culture.
Circumcision is performed on more than one million infant and prepubescent boys around the world every year. In America, even though a growing number of physicians dispute its benefits, circumcision remains the most frequently performed elective surgical procedure. In 1995, 64.1% of US male newborns were circumcised-yet there is no proven medical benefit to this practice on normal infants. This book, by medical historian David L. Gollahar presents a fascinating history of this controversial practice and why it has persisted over time through vastly different social contexts.
As this book shows, the removal of genital foreskin has a long and varied history: from the extraordinarily painful initiation rite of the ancient Egyptians, through the Hebrew purification ritual, through its use by nineteen-century doctors as prevention for ailments including bedwetting, paralysis, syphilis, and epilepsy, to the present persistence of female circumcision in African cultures. Gollaher also addresses the current controversy over the procedure's continuance, and those opposing routine circumcision will find support here.
Gollaher concludes that "if male circumcision were confined to developing nations," similar to the status of female circumcision, "it would by now have emerged as an international cause célèbre."
David L.
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