Book description
Only one hundred years ago, even in the world's wealthiest nations, children died in great numbers-of diarrhea, diphtheria and measles, of scarlet fever and meningitis. Culture was shaped by these deaths; diaries and letters recorded them, poets and writers wrote about and lamented them. Not even the high and mighty…
Why read it?
1 author picked A Good Time to Be Born as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I met Perri Klass several times back in the 1990s, and I was struck by how well she managed to be a mother to young children, a full-time pediatrician, and an author.
That connection inspired me to buy this book, but what started as a merely curious read soon turned into a gripping one. This is a solid work of historical scholarship, but Klass expertly turns the topic into a story that is variously shocking, moving, alarming, and uplifting—while deftly inserting occasional moments from her own experiences as a doctor.
I’m very far from being an expert on this topic,…
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