Unhappy mothers

Sarah Crook is a Senior Lecturer in History at Swansea University

'This is a book with a tight focus on how the postwar generation dealt with the initial shock of early motherhood. Crook acknowledges that the structural inequalities associated with mothering do not end when children go to school, and many twenty-first century women struggle with postnatal depression, the long-term effects of difficult births or marginalisation in the workplace. The question of how women manage the world’s incompatible demands, and their own irreconcilable selves, clearly has no fixed solution, and these psychological dilemmas will continue to reshape our societies. Crook’s thought-provoking book leaves the reader wondering where this history of the visibility—and increasing wariness—of unhappy motherhood truly ends.'Katie Joice, Social History of Medicine

• Introduction1 Mothers, general practitioners, and the NHS2 Health visitors and the worlds of new mothers3 Expertise and experience: mothers’ self-help4 The Women’s Liberation Movement and mothers’ discontent5 Feminist sociology, research, and visibilityConclusion