Feted and fetishised, the breast is an evolutionary masterpiece.
But in the modern world, the breast is changing.
Breasts are getting bigger, developing earlier and attracting newfangled chemicals. Increasingly, the odds are stacked against us in the struggle against breast cancer—
even among men.
So what makes breasts so mercurial—and so vulnerable?
As part of the research for this book, science journalist Florence Williams underwent tests on her own breasts and breast milk. She was shocked to learn that she was feeding her baby not just milk but also fire retardants and a whole host of other chemicals, all ingested throughout her life and stored in her breast tissue.
At its heart, Breasts: a natural and unnatural history is the story of how our breasts went from being honed by the environment to being harmed by it; a revealing and at times alarming look at the way the changes in our environments, diets and lifestyles have altered our breasts, our health and, ultimately, the health of future generations.
Accessible and entertaining—part biology, part anthropology and part medical journalism—Breasts is a wake-up call for all women.
About the Author
Florence Williams is a contributing editor at Outside Magazine and a freelance writer for New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Slate, Mother Jones, High Country News, O-Oprah, W., Bicycling and numerous other publications. Recently she was a visiting scholar at the University of Colorado's Journalism School.
Her work often focuses on the environment, health and science.
In 2007-2008, she was a Scripps Fellow at the Center of Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado. She has received many awards, including six magazine awards from the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the John Hersey Prize at Yale. Her work has been anthologized in numerous books, including Outside 25, the New Montana Story, How the West Was Warmed and Best American Science and Nature Writing 2008.
Her first book, BREASTS: A Natural and Unnatural History, was recently published by W.W. Norton. The manuscript was named a finalist for the 2011 Columbia/Nieman Lukas Work-in-Progress Award. She serves on the board of her favorite non-profit, High Country News, and lives with her family in the Rocky Mountains.
Industry Reviews
`Florence Williams's double-D talents as a reporter and writer lift this book high above the genre and separate it from theranks of ordinary science writing. Breasts is illuminating, surprising, clever, important. Williams is an author to savour and look forward to.' -- Mary Roach
'Breasts is less a primer on anatomy than a catalog of environmental devastation akin to Rachel Carson's 1962 classic Silent Spring, which detailed the impact of industrial chemicals-notably, the pesticide DDT-on animal life. But Williams, who cites Carson as an inspiration, has written a far scarier book. Carson examined birds and fish. Williams looks at us.' * New York Times *
