This book serves as a platform for considering today's inequalities in class and race.--
Nursing Standard Extends beyond the history of childbirth and contributes to the fields of American social history, family history, social medicine, masculinity studies, and gender studies. . . . Contribute[s] important findings to the literature on women's health while simultaneously broadening our knowledge of larger trends in American history.--
Reviews in American History Leavitt uses dozens of humorous, nerve-wracking and often touching stories from fathers to bring these experiences to life.--
Wisconsin Week No brief review can do justice either to the sophistication and analytical depth of
Make Room for Daddy, or to the sheer pleasure it is to read. . . . One of the most important books on gender and the family to be published in the past two decades. . . . An exceptional work of history that deserves a wide scholarly and general audience.--
Journal of Social History A pioneering history. . . . A wonderful addition to the project of plumbing the Oprahatic melange of identity, sentiment, and personal need at the core of examined life in our times.--
The Journal of American History Timely, erudite, and accessible. . . . Leavitt's narrative is both eloquent and analytical. . . . We now understand more about the role of men in the birthing process, greatly expanding our understanding of the history of the family, medicine, and gender.--
American Historical Review Amusing and absorbing throughout, this book is most provocative when it details the 'three P's': the 'place, privilege, and power' of childbirth that 'provides a lens through which to view larger issues of twentieth-century medicine and its inequalities, ' class foremost among them.--
The Atlantic Monthly Illuminates men's involvement with the childbirth experience, adding fathers-to-be as vital players in understanding American childbirth history. . . . Highly recommended.--
Choice A serious and meticulous investigation of territory where few scholars have previously ventured. . . . [A] much needed addition to the blossoming scholarly work on childbirth history.--
Women's Review of Books A requisite work for medical historians . . . also recommended for obstetricians, nurses and hospital administrators as they consider policies in the twenty-first century. . . . A highly convincing and well-written book, [this] serves as a basis for future scholarship, since it enriches our understandings of the cultural and biological event of childbirth while recognising the increasing importance of men in that process--
Social History of Medicine An extraordinary history of men and childbirth. . . . No brief review can do justice either to the sophistication and analytical depth of
Make Room for Daddy, or to the sheer pleasure it is to read. . . . One of the most important books on gender and the family to be published in the past two decades. Sensitive to differences in experience by class and race, with a subtle and nuanced argument supported by broad and deep research,
Make Room for Daddy is an exceptional work of history that deserves a wide scholarly and general audience.--
Journal of Social History A narrative history--illuminating and engaging--of what fathers actually did while mothers were giving birth over the past 80 years.--
The Wall Street Journal A highly engaging, readable history, richly illustrated with photographs and cartoons. . . . A telling example of the value of questioning previously hidden or ignored aspects of a topic. . . .Restores the father to his legitimate place in the story of reproduction in American society.--
Nursing History Review Should be read by anyone still doubting how important this change in men's roles was during the second half of the 20th century.--greatdad.com
Contributes mightily to the history of American childbirth, medicine, and families.--
Journal of American Studies Those who read
Make Room for Daddy will benefit from the experience and likely will have a newly deepened respect for what their parents and grandparents went through as they grew their families. . . . Highly recommend[ed].--
The Father Life 