Prairie Fox Reads

  Sisters in Science By Olivia Campbell Genre: History / Biography / Science Publication Year: 2024 My Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5) Spoiler Preference: Spoiler-Free Genius, Exile, and the Cost of Being Unwelcome History often celebrates scientific breakthroughs while overlooking the people who fought simply to remain in the room where discovery was happening. That is what makes Sisters in Science such a compelling and, at times, infuriating read. Olivia Campbell tells the intertwined stories of four pioneering physicists, Hedwig Kohn, Lise Meitner, Hertha Sponer, and Hildegard Stücklen, whose careers unfolded during one of the most dangerous periods of the twentieth century. These women were not aspiring scientists hoping for an opportunity. They were accomplished physicists already contributing to their field when the rise of Nazism threatened not only their careers but their lives. The book is, in one sense, a story of scientific achievement. Yet it is equally a story about...

     The Cure for Women By Lydia Reeder Genre: History / Biography / Medical History / Women's History Publication Year: 2024 My Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5) Spoiler Preference: Spoiler-Free When Bad Science Becomes Public Policy One of the most dangerous assumptions in modern life is that science is always objective. We like to believe that evidence naturally defeats prejudice, that facts inevitably triumph over ideology, and that knowledge steadily advances toward truth. The Cure for Women serves as a powerful reminder that reality is far messier. Scientific institutions are created by human beings, and human beings often bring their fears, biases, ambitions, and cultural assumptions into the work they claim is objective. Lydia Reeder's remarkable book tells the story of a period when some of America's most respected physicians used the language of science to argue that women were biologically unsuited for higher education, professional careers, political participa...