Artificial Parts, Practical Lives: Modern Histories of Prosthetics

By: Katherine Ott and David Serlin and Stephen Mihm

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Synopsis: These essays are valuable first forays into the history of prosthetics. From the wooden teeth of George Washington to the Bly prosthesis, popular in the 1860s and boasting easy uniform motions of the limb, to today's lifelike approximations, prosthetic devices reveal the extent to which the evolution and design of technologies of the body are intertwined with both the practical and subjective needs of human beings. The peculiar history of prosthetic devices sheds light on the relationship between technological change and the civilizing process of modernity, and analyzes the concrete materials of prosthetics which carry with them ideologies of body, ideals, body politics, and culture. Simultaneously critiquing, historicizing, and theorizing prosthetics, Artificial Parts, Practical Lives lays out a balanced and complex picture of its subject, neither vilifying nor celebrating the merger of flesh and machine.

Book Quality:: Excellent
Book Size:: 351 Pages
ISBN-13:: 9780814761977
Publisher:: New York University Press
Date of Addition:: 11/12/09
Copyrighted By:: New York University
Adult content:: No
Language:: English
Has Image Descriptions:: No
Categories:: History, Nonfiction, Disability-Related, Health, Mind and Body, Medicine
Submitted By:: Kari G
Proofread By:: Soliloquy
Usage Restrictions:: This is a copyrighted book.