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Literary Link
The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World
 In this groundbreaking work of investigative journalism, New York Times bestselling author Michelle Goldberg exposes the global war on women’s reproductive rights and its disastrous and unreported consequences for the future of global development. In The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World, Goldberg writes that the solution to addressing issues of over-population, rapid population decline, the AIDS epidemic, and improved development around the world is “giving women more control over their fertility and their lives.” With the world’s population growing at a rate of 78 million people annually—predominantly in the developing world—access to family planning, reproductive health care, and education is imperative.
The Means of Reproduction spans five decades and four continents, beginning with early family planning initiatives during the Cold War and exploring how they have shifted and morphed over time. New York Times columnist Nick Kristof wrote that the book is “full of wonderful insights and stories…Goldberg is exactly right.” It’s a must-read for anyone concerned about reproductive health, family planning, women’s rights, development and the environment.
Live Online with Michelle Goldberg
 On June 3, Pathfinder hosted a live discussion at www.pathfind.org with Michelle Goldberg. A recording of the event is available here.
The event featured:
- Michelle Goldberg's thoughts on reproductive health issues around the world
- Questions about Means of Reproduction
- A brief overview of Pathfinder's work
You can still order your copy of the book through Amazon.com, and help support Pathfinder.
About the author
Michelle Goldberg is a peripatetic journalist and author who has always been fascinated by the intersection of ideology, sex, and politics. Her first book, the New York Times bestseller Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism (WW Norton), delved into some of the reddest precincts of the United States to expose the ascendant politico-religious fundamentalism dominating the Republican Party and, at the time, the Bush administration. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called it “an impressive piece of lucid journalism…carefully researched and riveting.” It was a finalist for the 2007 New York Pubic Library Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism.
After Kingdom Coming came out, Goldberg spent the next two years traveling the globe to research The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power and the Future of the World, which was just published by Penguin Press in April. Reported from four continents, The Means of Reproduction is about the international battle over reproductive rights. Women’s freedom, Goldberg argues, is key to addressing both overpopulation and rapid population decline, helping the third world climb out of poverty and retarding the spread of AIDS. Yet attempts to improve women's status and give them greater control over their own bodies elicit fierce opposition from conservatives who see women's submission as key to their own identity. In 2008, The Means of Reproduction won the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award. The judges described it as “a book of vaulting ambition and intellectual passion. Michelle Goldberg looks at literally the entire world through the prism of women's issues and women's rights. From abortion to female circumcision, from sexual trafficking to abstinence-only programs, from Poland to Ethiopia to Nicaragua, she examines the conflict between self-determination and patriarchal tradition.”
Before she started writing books, Goldberg was a senior writer for Salon.com. Her work has also appeared in Glamour, Rolling Stone, The Nation, New York, The Guardian (UK), and The New Republic. She is a contributing editor at Religion Dispatches and a senior correspondent for the American Prospect, where she has recently started writing a bi-monthly web column about human rights and foreign policy. Goldberg has reported from countries including Uganda, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, India, and Argentina. She has taught at NYU’s Graduate School of Journalism, lectured throughout the United States and in Europe, and has been interviewed on hundreds of radio shows, including Fresh Air with Terry Gross. When she’s not on the road, she spends as much time as possible in her Cobble Hill, Brooklyn neighborhood with her husband, Matthew Ipcar.
If you would like to share your response to this feature, please email communications@pathfind.org.
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Live Online with Michelle Goldberg
