History Alumna Publishes Book on Post-Partum Depression
Congratulations are in order for Penn State History alumna Rachel Louise Moran! Moran’s second book, Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America, will be available in stores and online on October 8th, 2024. Moran completed her PhD from Penn State in 2013, and since then has taught history at the University of North Texas. Moran’s first book, Governing Bodies: American Politics and the Shaping of the Modern Physique, was published in 2018. Moran’s skill for exploring the complex historical junction of American politics, medicine, and gender discourse is evident in Governing Bodies, and shapes the text of Blue.
The following summary of Blue comes from The University of Chicago Press:
“New motherhood is often seen as a joyful moment in a woman’s life; for
some women, it is also their lowest moment. For much of the twentieth
century, popular and medical voices blamed women who had
emotional and mental distress after childbirth for their own suffering.
By the end of the century, though, women with postpartum mental
illnesses sought to take charge of this narrative. In Blue: A History of
Postpartum Depression in America, Rachel Louise Moran explores the
history of the naming and mainstreaming of postpartum depression.
Coalitions of maverick psychiatrists, psychologists, and women who
themselves had survived substantial postpartum distress fought to
legitimize and normalize women’s experiences. They argued that
postpartum depression is an objective and real illness and fought to
avoid it being politicized alongside other fraught medical and political
battles over women’s health.
Based on insightful oral histories and in-depth archival research, Blue
reveals a secret history of American motherhood, women’s political
activism, and the rise of postpartum depression advocacy amid an
often-censorious conservative culture. By breaking new ground with
the first book-length history of postpartum mental illness in the
twentieth century, Moran brings mothers’ battles with postpartum
depression out of the shadows and into the light.”
Moran, Rachel L. “Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America.” University of Chicago Press.
Congratulations to Dr. Moran on her achievement! You can purchase your paper and digital copies of Blue here.
