Artificial Parts, Practical Lives: Modern Histories of Prosthetics

Katherine Ott, David Serlin, Stephen Mihm

NYU Press, 2002 - History - 359 pages

From the wooden teeth of George Washington to the Bly prosthesis, popular in the 1860s and boasting easy uniform motions of the limb, to today's lifelike approximations, prosthetic devices reveal the extent to which the evolution and design of technologies of the body are intertwined with both the practical and subjective needs of human beings.
The peculiar history of prosthetic devices sheds light on the relationship between technological change and the civilizing process of modernity, and analyzes the concrete materials of prosthetics which carry with them ideologies of body, ideals, body politics, and culture.
Simultaneously critiquing, historicizing, and theorizing prosthetics, Artificial Parts, Practical Lives lays out a balanced and complex picture of its subject, neither vilifying nor celebrating the merger of flesh and machine.

Contents

• An Introduction to Modern Historiesof Prosthetics: 1
• Need: 43
• Veterans and Prostheticsafter World War Two: 45
• Artificially RebuildingState and Society in World War One Germany: 75
• Breast Prosthesis before 1950: 102
• Confederate Veteransand Artificial Limbs in Virginia: 119
• Design: 145
• Craft and Commerce inArtificial Eyes: 147
• The Development of CosmeticProsthetics: 171
• The Material Development ofArtificial Hips: 199
• Communication andAlignment in Contemporary Prosthetics: 227
• Use and Representation: 247
• Motion StudyPhotography and the Industrialized Body inWorld War I America: 249
• Prosthetic Technologies in the Nineteenth Century: 282
• 11 The Long Arm of Benjamin Franklin: 300
• Developing the JaipurFoot Prothesis: 327
• Contributors: 349
• Index: 351

About the author

Katherine Ott is a curator of Science, Medicine, and Society at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, which houses the largest collection of medical artifacts in the U.S. David Serlin is Associate Professor of Communication and Science Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Stephen Mihm is a doctoral candidate in history at New York University.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Artificial Parts, Practical Lives: Modern Histories of Prosthetics
• Editors: Katherine Ott, David Serlin, Stephen Mihm
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: NYU Press, 2002
• ISBN: 0814761984, 9780814761984
• Length: 359 pages
• Subjects: History / General; History / Social History; Medical / History; Medical / Prosthesis; Science / General; Technology & Engineering / Biomedical