Description
Book SynopsisRecovering the Nation’s Body is the first book to analyze the actual practices involved in procuring human tissue, and the first to examine how the German past and the unique present-day situation within the European Union are key in understanding the form that medical practices take within various contexts.
Trade ReviewA noteworthy contribution to our understanding of the cultural history of twentieth-century Germany. * German Studies Review *
This astonishing portrait of changing understandings of life and death is both profound and revolutionary. While extending classical debates about body parts as gifts and as commodities, it brilliantly transfigures them. Unparalleled in its field, this powerful book redefines the future of medical anthropology. -- Sarah Franklin * Reader in Cultural Anthropology, Lancaster University *
Table of ContentsIntroduction : situating medical practices
Animation and regeneration : the meaning of death and the use of body materials in history
Embodying national identity : national socialism and the body
Culture, technology, and the law define the body
Bodies, sciences, and the state in the new Germany
Organizing the procurement and use of human materials
Local practice : coordinators and surgeons
Converting human materials into therapeutic tools
The right therapeutic tools
Conclusions : medicine and the politics of redemption
