Women of the Asylum - Jeffrey Geller and Maxine Harris

 Sub-title: Voices from Behind the Walls 1840 - 1945

One of my great-grandmothers was put in an institution in the 1900's and died there 30 years later.  I ordered and read this book to learn what life would have been like during her time there.  Horrific and inhuman in short.  I have very limited records from her stay at a place called Retreat Hospital in Pennsylvania.  

This book is a compilation of the personal stories of many women who experienced incarceration against their will in a mental institution aka an asylum.  The book begins before the Civil War and concludes with the story of Fannie Farmer, the actress, after WWII.  A tragic, disheartening portrait of the treatment of women and mental illness.

Quotes:

"When will married women be safe from their husband's power?"

"Failing to fulfill the roles of wife and mother and following occupations and professions for which they 'are not suited' were listed as a cause of insanity for women.[in late 19th century

"Let no one believe that any person, except a demented one, would chose the life of the asylum."

"INSANE ASYLUM - a place where insanity is made."

"'Night medicine' is a preparation of chloral [hydrate] and it was given to me the first night I spent in this place."

"By 1918, two million women belonged to the National American Woman Suffrage Association, making it the largest volunteer organization in the country".

"What the [asylum physician] finally succeeded in doing -in a word- was to make me feel with my mind rather than think with my feelings." 

Note: Clarissa Lathrop has a story in book, she is 3rd cousin 4 times removed

Published:  1994  Read: Summer 2026  Genre: non-fiction

The Smartest Guys in the Room: - Bethany McLean, Peter Elkind

 Sub-title: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron 

I'd taken a while to finish this, reading a bit at night for several weeks.  It's a hard story to take.  The greed, arrogance, bravado of smart people without a conscience or concern what whether what they were doing was right, only that it could be done.  

Published: 2013  Read: November 2022  Genre: Business, History

Caste - Isabel Wilkerson

 Sub-title: The Origins of our Discontents

Eye-opening and challenging, this book makes me think differently and see the place I've lived differently.

Through keen observation and historical context, Wilkerson explains how the US was predicated on dividing people into separate and unequal groups, black and white.  It's a powerful story of the evolution of racism in America.  Tough to read.  This book provided me with a new perspective on race in America.  I hope to participate in a book group discussion.

Quotes:

Chap. 4 - "It's a measure of how long enslavement lasted in the United States that the year 2022 marks the first year that the United States will have been an independent nation for a long as slavery lasted on its soil.  No current-day adult will be alive in the year in which African-Americans as a group will have been free for as long as they had been enslaved.  That will not come until the year 2111."

Page 111 - The Supreme Court did not overturn these prohibitions [against intermarriage] until 1967...Alabama..did not throw out its law against intermarriage until the year 2000. Even then, 40 percent of the electorate in that referendum voted in favor of keeping the marriage ban on the books."

p. 183 - "Those in the dominant caste who found themselves lagging behind those seen as inherently inferior potentially faced an epic existential crisis.  To stand on the same rung as those perceived to be of a lower caste is seen as lowering one's status.:...  "The elevation of others amount to a demotion of oneself, thus equality feels like a demotion." [my emphasis]

p 387 - "Human beings across time and continents are more alike than they are different.  The central question about human behavior is not why do those people do this or act in that way, now or in ages past, but what is it that human beings do when faced with a given circumstance?" 

Published: 2020  Read: March 2021  Genre: History 

Mrs Lincoln's Dressmaker - Jennifer Chiaverini

This story is based on the real life of Elizabeth “Lizzie” Keckley, a former slave who bought her freedom and became a dressmaker in Washington DC during the Lincoln presidency.  Her diaries provided the basis for her experience as Mary Todd Lincoln's "modiste", someone who not only constructed her garments but dressed and fitted her for events.  

The well known temperamental Mary is illuminated through her interactions with Lizzie. They remain together until shortly after Lincoln's assassination.  A great history lesson and a look at the lives of women during the 1860's.

Published:  2013  Read: April 2019  Genre: Fiction

One Summer in America - 1927 - Bill Bryson

By all accounts, 1927 was a memorable year in America and the author set out to blend all the events of the time into a coherent story line.  Bryson takes historical events (Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic) sports (Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig memorable seasons with the Yankees), politics (Calvin Coolidge's presidency and the rise of Herbert Hoover), and the rise of the Hollywood movie industry and tells how they launched lasting impacts on America and the rest of the World.

One seeming omission that rankled my reading of the book was scarce mention of significant accomplishments and contributions of women.  Where was Margaret Mead or Margaret Sanger? Jane Addams? Amelia Earhart?  It reminds me that history becomes what is recorded and if it is recorded by men, then the contributions and stories of women may be overlooked or diminished.

Some parts I noted:

"[Pinedo, an Italian aviator, doing a cross country tour after an Atlantic crossing] On April 6, en route to a civic reception in San Diego, he landed at a reservoir called Roosevelt Lake in the desert west of Phoenix...a youth lit a cigarette and threw the match in the water..." and his plane was engulfed in flames.

He describes the use of the new Standford version of the Binet-Simon test, which eventually became the modern IQ test and says "it is interesting to reflect that the IQ test was invented not to determine how smart people are, but how stupid."

Overall, the book was a good read, providing a snapshot of the U.S. at that time and the influences and impacts of the events.

Published:  2013  Read: August 2015  Genre: History, Non-Fiction

ISBN: 9 7807 919401