Book ID: CBB656267988

Figuring the population bomb: Gender and demography in the mid-twentieth century (2017)

unapi

Carole R. (Carole Ruth) McCann (Author)


University of Washington Press


Publication Date: 2017
Edition Details: Book Series: Feminist technosciences
Physical Details: 314
Language: English

Figuring the Population Bomb traces the genealogy of twentieth-century demographic "facts" that created a mathematical panic about a looming population explosion. This narrative was popularized in the 1970s in Paul Ehrlich's best-selling book The Population Bomb, which pathologized population growth in the Global South by presenting a doomsday scenario of widespread starvation resulting from that growth. Carole McCann uses an archive of foundational texts, disciplinary histories, participant reminiscences, and organizational records to reveal the gendered geopolitical grounds of the specialized mathematical culture, bureaucratic organization, and intertextual hierarchy that gave authority to the concept of population explosion. These demographic theories and measurement practices ignited the population "crisis" and moved nations to interfere in women's reproductive lives. Figuring the Population Bomb concludes that mid-twentieth-century demographic figures remain authoritative to this day in framing the context of transnational feminist activism for reproductive justice. (Amazon)

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Reviewed By

Review Sarah E Igo (October 2020) Review of "Figuring the population bomb: Gender and demography in the mid-twentieth century". Environmental History (pp. 811-813). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB656267988/

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Authors & Contributors
Katie Holmes
Long, Max
Castro Arcos, Javier
Lee, Sujin
Sakai, Naoki
Mellors, Sarah
Concepts
Population
Birth control; contraception; sterilization
Gender
Eugenics
Environmental history
Public health
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, late
20th century, early
Medieval
19th century
Modern
Places
United States
China
Korea
Salton Sea
Los Angeles (California)
Western states (U.S.)
Institutions
Air Force Research Laboratory (Kirtland Air Force Base)
World Health Organization (WHO)
UNESCO
United Nations
Sandia National Laboratories (United States)
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