Medical Bondage

This book was a little tough to get through because of the academic language, but I think this is an important book and a good contribution to the history of slavery, racism, and gynecology in the United States. There were a lot of tough stories to hear but Owens does her best to humanize all the women she calls the “mothers of gynecology” even when there is very little information about their lives. I liked her afterword where she talks about how some historians or critics of historians say that if you identify with the people you're studying then you can't be objective, but I think if you can't identify with the people you're studying then a lot of nuance will be missed. Owens is very deliberate about being empathetic and I believe that makes for a more accurate history.