Artificial Parts, Practical Lives: Modern Histories of Prosthetics

by Katherine Ott (Editor), David Serlin (Editor), Stephen Mihm (Editor)

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Disability, Technology, Design, Cultural

359 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2002

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.

Reviews

[York · Rating 2 out of 5]

Chapters on actual medical technology were amazing, but the chapters on "cultural prosthetics" were so bad they seriously knocked this one down.

[Marty Heath · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot overstate how glad I am that I bought this book. It was kind of on a whim, but this book is both super useful for academic reference (clearly) & also super readable! Definitely of my favorite readings for my prelims!

[Squeemu · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple of these essays were really thought provoking, but I wasn't a fan of the last few. I would have liked to know more specific details about the Jaipur foot, and the entire chapter on Benjamin Franklin felt out of place.