The Trials of Madame Restell by Nicholas L Syrett is a detailed look at the campaign (still ongoing today) to limit female autonomy and increase male control by focusing on the many trials and public attacks on a prominent "female physician" of the period.

Earlier in the year I read another book about Restell (actual name was Ann Trow Summers Lohman) that was a lighter but also very good read but this volume by Syrett offered more detail and less cheerleading (though I didn't find the more popular approach of Wright's book at all off-putting). It is in the details, particularly concerning the public campaigns and the trials, where we can see the parallels with our current political and social environment.

There is a great deal of discussion of the legal battles, from basic theory to precedents and where they were applied or ignored, but not so much that a person with no legal training will be turned off. There also is not a lot of jargon and where such terms need to be used, they are explained quite well.

This will be of obvious interest to those concerned with human rights (I mean actual living human beings, not collections of cells that could potentially become a living breathing human being) and women's rights in particular. From historical and sociological interests to activism there is plenty here for a reader to learn and incorporate.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )