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Circumcision:

a history of the world's most controversial surgery
Front Cover
5 Reviews
Basic Books, 2000 - Medical - 253 pages
How has a medical practice that carries substantial risk to the patient and offers very little actual benefit become so widely accepted by parents and fiercely advocated by the medical community? Historian of medicine David Gollaher tells the strange history of medicine's oldest enigma and most persistent ritual in Circumcision. From the extraordinarily painful initiation rite of the ancient Egyptians, through the Hebrew purification ritual, through circumcision's use by the rising medical community in the nineteenth century as prevention for ailments ranging from bedwetting to paralysis, the great mystery has been the persistence of the practice through vastly different social contexts.
  

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Review: Circumcision: A History Of The World's Most Controversial Surgery

User Review  - Dayna - Goodreads

It's an interesting history of circumcision. I actually learned a lot, especially about how circumcision became so routine in the United States, which I had really wondered about. The author gives ... Read full review

Review: Circumcision: A History Of The World's Most Controversial Surgery

User Review  - E - Goodreads

Gollaher does a good job of historicizing genital cutting as a cultural practice without denigrating the people who engage in it, although the religious and anthropological aspects of this book were ... Read full review

All 5 reviews »

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Contents

The Jewish Tradition
1
Christians and Muslims
31
Chapter3 Symbolic Wounds
53
From Ritual to Science
73
Chapters The Fabric of the Foreskin
109
Chapter7 Backlash
161
Chapter8 Female Circumcision
187
Evaluative Research and
209
Index
241
Copyright

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From Google Scholar

Between Prophylaxis and Child Abuse
Michael Benatar, David Benatar - 2003 - The American Journal of Bioethics
Circoncisione: cosa tagliamo quando tagliamo?
CARLO CALCAGNO - 2007 - Urologia

References from web pages

Book: Circumcision: A History of the World's most Controversial ...
Circumcision: A History of the World's Most Controversial Surgery by David L Gollaher. Basic Books, £17.80, pp 260. ISBN 0 465 04397 6. ...
www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/ articlerender.fcgi?artid=1119872

Circumcision: A History of the World's Most Controversial Surgery ...
How has a medical practice that carries substantial risk to the patient and offers very little actual benefit become so widely accepted by parents and ...
www.questia.com/ library/ book/ circumcision-a-history-of-the-worlds-most-controversial-surgery-by-david-l-gollaher.jsp

ד"ר חנוך בן-ימי
Circumcision: A History of the World's Most Controversial Surgery David L. Gollaher, Basic Books, pp. 253, $26.00 Reviewed by Hanoch Ben-Yami ...
www.tau.ac.il/ humanities/ philos/ segel/ hanoch2-britmila-eng.html

"Circumcision" by David L. Gollaher - Salon.com
In "Circumcision: A History of the World's Most Controversial Surgery," medical historian David L. Gollaher rounds up thousands of years' worth of religious ...
dir.salon.com/ story/ books/ review/ 2000/ 02/ 22/ gollaher/

circinfo.org
David Gollaher, Circumcision: A history of the world's most controversial surgery, (New York, Basic Books, 2000) Review by Dr Robert Darby ...
www.circinfo.org/ research.html

David Gollaher - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Circumcision: A History of the World's Most Controversial Surgery (New York: Basic Books, 2000) Das verletzte Geschlecht: Die Geschichte der Beschneidung ...
en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ David_Gollaher

History of Circumcision
Gollaher D. Circumcision: A History of the World's Most Controversial Surgery. New York: Basic Books, 2000: Preface, p. xi. ...
www.historyofcircumcision.net/ index.php?option=content& task=view& id=77

BOOKS OF THE TIMES; A Ritual With Deep Cultural Roots - New York Times
... in his fascinating new book, ''Circumcision: A History of the World's Most Controversial Surgery,'' in which he sets out to make ''the strange familiar ...
query.nytimes.com/ gst/ fullpage.html?res=940DE6D91E3CF930A35757C0A9669C8B63

California Healthcare Institute's CEO Gollaher to Host Venture ...
... the history of science and medicine, including his latest book Circumcision: A History of the World's Most Controversial Surgery (Basic Books, 2000). ...
www.larta.org/ lavox/ articlelinks/ 2005/ 050425_gollaher.asp

bmj.com Stokes 322 (7287): 680
Circumcision: A History of the World's Most Controversial Surgery. David L Gollaher. Basic Books, £17.80, pp 260. ISBN 0 465 04397 6 ...
bmj.bmjjournals.com/ cgi/ content/ full/ 322/ 7287/ 680?ck=nck

About the author (2000)

Dr. Gollaher is President and CEO of the California Healthcare Institute and the author of Voice for the Mad: The Life of Dorothea Dix. He lives in San Diego, California.

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