Barbara Brookes: 3 books

What would a history of New Zealand look like that rejected Thomas Carlyle’s definition of history as ‘the biography of great men’, and focused instead on the experiences of women? One that shifted the angle of vision and examined the stages of this country’s development from the points of...

From electro-convulsive therapy to epilepsy, from criminal lunacy to community care, Unfortunate Folks: Essays on Mental Health Treatment, 1863-1992, opens windows on to the history of mental health treatment in New Zealand.

Over the decades from 1900 to 1967 abortion was transformed from an important female-centred form of fertility control into a medical event, closely monitored by the State. This transition, the author argues here, took place against a background of debate over fertility control and its implications...