Overview

Only one hundred years ago, even in the world's wealthiest nations, children died in great numbers?of diarrhea, diphtheria, and measles, of scarlet fever and meningitis. Culture was shaped by these deaths; diaries and letters recorded them, poets and writers from Louisa May Alcott to Eugene O'Neill wrote about and lamented them. Not even the high and mighty could escape: presidents and titans of industry lost their children, the poor and powerless lost theirs even more frequently. The near-conquest of infant and child mortality is one of our greatest human achievements, and Perri Klass pulls the story together for the first time, paying tribute to scientists, public health advocates, and groundbreaking women doctors like Sara Josephine Baker and Mary Putnam Jacobi, who brought new scientific ideas about sanitation and vaccination to families. Thanks to their work, early death is now the exception, bringing about a massive transformation in society and freeing parents to worry a lot more about a lot less.

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9780393609998

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Reviews

Klass beautifully demonstrates how the fusion of medical science and public health led to the vaccines, antibiotics, safety measures, and self-help volumes that saved countless young lives while revolutionizing the ways in which we map our children's future. Elegantly written, filled with memorable characters and events, A Good Time to Be Born is the perfect prescription for the uncertainties of our time.--David Oshinsky, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Polio: A History Not too long ago, parents lived with the near certainty of losing a child or two; Perri Klass captures the drama of science and society's triumph over that abysmal reality. As we grapple with new and unimaginable scourges, the lessons in this gripping, personal and beautifully researched chronicle could not be more relevant.--Abraham Verghese, MD, author of Cutting for Stone All readers with an interest in the history of health care--and all parents who bite their nails over the relatively rare dangers facing their children now--will be riveted.--Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down With her broad pediatric knowledge and warm understanding of parental attachments, Perri Klass tells the dramatic story of how medical science transformed childhood in the twentieth century...An important contribution to the history of childhood that can provide comfort and insight to all of us.--Paula S. Fass, author of The End of American Childhood

Klass masterfully introduces readers to the people coming up with solutions for many of the dangers of childhood and shows how the pediatric specialty over time has worked to improve children's lives. Essential reading for parents.--Margaret Henderson An ambitious, elegant meditation...[Klass] takes the most complex human patterns of all -- history, medicine, politics, art -- and knits them into something unique and beautiful.--Christie Watson A powerful story of the right of children to live and thrive from birth. The result of Klass's erudition and nuance is a fascinating look at a seldom-sung but profound change in the human condition. Klass beautifully demonstrates how the fusion of medical science and public health led to the vaccines, antibiotics, safety measures, and self-help volumes that saved countless young lives while revolutionizing the ways in which we map our children's future. Elegantly written, filled with memorable characters and events, A Good Time to Be Born is the perfect prescription for the uncertainties of our time.--David Oshinsky, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Polio: A History Not too long ago, parents lived with the near certainty of losing a child or two; Perri Klass captures the drama of science and society's triumph over that abysmal reality. As we grapple with new and unimaginable scourges, the lessons in this gripping, personal and beautifully researched chronicle could not be more relevant.--Abraham Verghese, MD, author of Cutting for Stone All readers with an interest in the history of health care--and all parents who bite their nails over the relatively rare dangers facing their children now--will be riveted.--Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down With her broad pediatric knowledge and warm understanding of parental attachments, Perri Klass tells the dramatic story of how medical science transformed childhood in the twentieth century...An important contribution to the history of childhood that can provide comfort and insight to all of us.--Paula S. Fass, author of The End of American Childhood

Author Information

Perri Klass is professor of journalism and pediatrics at New York University, codirector of NYU Florence, and national medical director of Reach Out and Read. She writes the weekly column The Checkup for the New York Times.

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