The decline of the birth rate is arguably the most important social change of the twentieth century in Canada. The Bedroom and the State, first published in 1986, examines the social, cultural, and technological reasons for this decline and answers such questions as: * What forms of contraception were used prior to the Pill? * How widespread and dangerous has abortion been? * Why were so many feminists, socialists, ministers, and doctors initially opposed to birth control? * Who were its first proponents in Canada? * Why has Quebec's birth rate fallen so precipitiously? * Why was contraception illegal until 1969? The Bedroom and the State is recognized as a landmark history of how Canadian men and women sought to limit births and how public figures sought to turn such concern to political purposes. In this second edition the authors have updated their conclusion and added a new chapter to cover denouementof the pro-choice/pro-life debate in Canada, to detail recent court challenges to Canadian law, and to describe recent developments in reproductive technologies and their significance for present and future generations. This excellent work reveals that the control of fertility has been a crucial factor in the history of the shifting power relationships of the sexes and the classes.

Angus McLaren is emeritus professor of history at the University of Victoria. He is the author of Sexual Blackmail: A Modern History, Impotence: A Cultural History, and A Prescription for Murder: The Victorian Serial Killings of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream.

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"The book does an effective job of unpacking anti-choice rhetoric. ...McLaren and McLaren are clearly well informed about the analysis presented by feminists, particularly socialist feminists, who played such an important role in the defeat of the abortion law and in articulating thelimitations of a focus on choice, where a broader reproductive rights strategy is needed. Those who are interested in current debates about abortion, reproductive rights and reproductive technologies will find these last chapters a good general overview, reminding us of the social, legal andpolitical terrain on which current social policy was forged. Mostly, however, they will appreciate the historical context for current debates that McLaren and McLaren provide" -- Deborah Brock, Department of Sociology, Trent University in The Canadian Journal of Sociology Online(http://www.ualberta.ca/~cjscopy)