Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America

From thriving black market to big business, the commercialization of birth control in the United States

In Devices and Desires , Andrea Tone breaks new ground by showing what it was really like to buy, produce, and use contraceptives during a century of profound social and technological change. A down-and-out sausage-casing worker by day who turned surplus animal intestines into a million-dollar condom enterprise at night; inventors who fashioned cervical caps out of watch springs; and a mother of six who kissed photographs of the inventor of the Pill — these are just a few of the individuals who make up this riveting story.