The Palgrave Handbook of Infertility in History ‘Infertility is not only, nor even primarily a bio-medical issue. Rather, infertility intersects with broader contextual and historical currents: religion, politics, economics and culture, notwithstanding the impact involuntary childlessness did, and does have on individuals and their families. The Palgrave Handbook of Infertility in History examines a vast array of varied historical and contemporary accounts ranging from deeply personal ‘stories’ of childlessness and attempts at assisted fertility, ancient through to modern-day medical attitudes to inferti- lity and male and female impotence, and the politicisation of reproduction and population concerns at the sixteenth-century French court, in twentieth-century China and India, to the commercialisation of reproductive medicine and the commodification of body parts and fluids in a variety of global contexts. The Palgrave Handbook of Infertility in History resists ‘easy assumptions’ and definitions of infertility. It raises difficult questions: how do we talk about involuntary childlessness, as scholars, as human beings? What does it mean to be ‘infertile’ in different global and historical contexts and from different perspectives? A truly inter and intra-disciplinary volume, The Palgrave Handbook of Infertility in History confronts readers with the hard reality that the ways we think and write about reproductive health and intimate bodily and familial concerns like infertility not only reflect, but also shape and determine the meanings we as scholars, and the societies in which we live, ascribe to infertility. The authors do not shy away from the responsibility that entails, inviting readers in turn to reflect on their own choices. A vital corrective to the preponderance of scholarship on procreation and fertility, The Palgrave Handbook of Infertility in History is an important contribution to scholarship on gender, feminisms, sexualities, families, emotions, colonialism and much, much more. An incredibly moving and informative volume; this reader learned a lot and was often moved to tears.’ —Cathy McClive, Department of History, Durham University, UK ‘An outstanding work of scholarship and a joy to read. This wide-ranging, eye-opening and exquisitely compiled handbook intricately examines infertility from historical, political, socio- economic and individual perspectives. It provides a much-needed reminder in the face of ever- advancing reproductive technologies that infertility has always been with us and has always had a profound effect on human lives. Everyone with an academic, professional or personal interest in infertility and its treatment should read this unique and illuminating book.’ —Susan Golombok, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK ‘At a time when biomedicine is increasingly stratified, unevenly offering solutions for unwanted childlessness, the time is ripe to look back and forge a new field of inquiry into infertility itself. In this excellent book, editors Davis and Loughran have assembled a wide- ranging historical consideration of infertility that until now has been missing from the scholarship. The captivating essays collectively uncover areas less-travelled by scholars of