Making the Body Beautiful

Reviews / Votes

"A [wide-ranging] and enjoyable work... Gilman has an eye for detail, yet remains aware of the wider perspective. He also raises important questions... In [this] rich, elegant and beautiful [book] he shows that the history of aesthetic surgery is too important to be left to the surgeons."--Jonathan Cole, Times Literary Supplement "There is one theme that links all [Gilman's] work: how human beings construct images of others to define themselves... [He] has been unafraid to examine areas that academics have traditionally shied away from."--The New York Times "[A] readable and useful book... Through Mr. Gilman's long lens, the search for beauty and the fashion for plastic surgery are not a contemporary ill, but something older and more universal."--The Economist Review "[Gilman] tells a strange, macabre, and often richly comic story of shifting desires. His book shows a dazzling European erudition... There is now less furtiveness attached to aesthetic surgery. But the question remains--and Gilman asks it cleverly, humanely, and persistently--whether new appearances just gloss over old problems and often create new ones."--New York Review of Books "Far from the body representing immutable essences of beauty or horror, the history of aesthetic surgery confirms that the body bears witness to public ideologies of sexual and racial difference. And the body has its own invisible memories of tragedy from which, for some, aesthetic surgery offers the promise of transcendence."--Beatrix Campbell, The Independent "Bravely navigating the ethnic maze with admirable aplomb, ... [Sander Gilman] considers nearly every hyphenated group's American dream of becoming something else. He gets away with such brazenness ... by constantly offering entertaining literary and pop culture references upon which we can all hang our hats."--Margo Hammond, The New York Observer "A fascinating combination of text and illustration and of literary, medical, and scientific information. A thoughtful history by an author who knows his material well and has a sympathetic understanding of human beings as well as a lively sense of humor."--Booklist "A fascinating and provocative book."--Library Journal (starred review) "[Gilman's] fast-paced narrative blends cultural criticism with discussion of medical techniques and ethics in a thoughtful study that should appeal to both a lay and professional readership."--Publishers Weekly "With its bizarre amalgam of new developments in medicine and prevailing trends in fashion, "aesthetic surgery" is a phenomenon that begs for examination, and Gilman, as both historian and critic, proves equal to the task... Face-lifts, nose jobs, liposuction, decircumcision, buttocks implants, breast augmentation, and breast reduction, among other procedures, present themselves, Gilman dryly notes, as surgical cures for what is often essentially a psychological problem--a persistent sense of discontent."--Holly Brubach, The Atlantic Monthly "Gilman's research is thorough, his analysis thoughtful, and the presentation thought-provoking."--Choice "Rich in both detail and fascinating illustrations, Gilman's history shows aesthetic surgery as a response to the exigencies of contemporary cultures."--Bettyann Holtzmann Kevles, Isis "Making the Body Beautiful is an important contribution to our understanding of th emergence and significance of aesthetic surgery. It is a must for anyone concerned with our present cultural obsession with beauty and the makability of the body. And it provides a model for writing medical history that is not limited to charting the facts, but tries to understand their meaning as well."--Kathy Davis, Bulletin of the History of Medicine "A richly illustrated, delightfully crafted cultural history of aesthetic surgery ... An informative and captivating history of our attempts to make our bodies beautiful."--Londa Schiebinger, American Historical Review "Gilman tells a timely, yet previously largely untold tale. By presenting the complex interaction of ideas, social relations, technology, psychiatry (and the madness of doctors as well as patients), the author makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of our times."--Erika Bourguignon, The Antioch Review