A Darker Ribbon

I would recommend [this book] to anyone . . . as a truly engaged social history of a curious, melancholy, and, until now, untold chapter in medical history. -Katherine A. Powers, The Boston Globe

“Why did it take most of the twentieth century for breast cancer to move from being viewed as a disease that affected women to a woman’s disease? How do we explain the stubborn reluctance of American women to understand breast cancer as a feminist issue? Leopold’s answers to these questions, along with her skillful attempt to fill a historiographical void in the breast cancer literature, make for engaging reading.” -Regina Morantz-Sanchez, The Women’s Review of Books

“The apposition of Barbara Mueller’s interaction with Halsted and Rachel Carson’s with Crile is compelling and poignant.” -Jerome Groopman, The New York Times Book Review

“A Darker Ribbon is an invaluable tool and a powerful call to arms.”
–National Women’s Review

“A path-breaking inquiry into the sociopolitical history of cancer writ large. . . . Read the book as a story about how the cancer establishment got the active support of the American population, and you’ve got a new window on twentieth-century medical history.” -Deborah Stone, The American Prospect