Rock-a-by Baby

Verta Taylor is Associate Professor of Sociology at Ohio State University. She is the co-author of Survival in theDoldrums: The American Women's Rights Movement, 1945 tothe 1960s, and co-editor of Feminist Frontiers.

"succeeds beautifully...provides an intriguing look at group dynamics and gender politics." -- Wendy Simonds, Signs"Rock-a-by-Baby is a moving story grounded in women's experience of postpartum depression. It is also an insightful analysis of new social movements and feminism in late-twentieth-century America. Verta Taylor links the personal and the political in rich sociological and feminist tradition. And she does so wonderfully." -- Political Processes"Rock-a-by Baby is feminist sociology at its best." -- Barrie Thorne, University of California, Berkeley"Taylor skillfully combines the concept of women's culture from feminist gender studies and the social construction of postpartum depression by patients, physicians, and psychiatrists. She traces the complexities and contradictions in this ultimately political discourse in an original and widely applicable framework that expands social movement theory and feminist theory." -- Judith Lorber, CUNY"Framed against the background of her own experience with depression, the author uses survivor narratives in order to elucidate poignant aspects of her study. . . Taylor wants us to look at the disparity between what we believe should be the feelings of new mothers and the actual feelings expressed by women suffering from postpartum depression. . . Overall, this is an informative look at postpartum depression self-help groups." -- Kathleen Sorenson, Assoc. for Research on Mothering, York University, Canada"Rock-a-by-Baby is a moving story grounded in women's experience of postpartum depression. It is also an insightful analysis of new social movements and feminism in late-twentieth-century America. Verta Taylor links the personal and the political in rich sociological and feminist tradition. And she does so wonderfully." -- Political Processes

• Chapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 The Cradle Falls; Chapter 3 Size the Day; Chapter 4 Getting and Giving Support; Chapter 5 The Metamorphosis of Feminism in Women’ Self-Help; Chapter 6 The Revolution from Within;