The Trials of Nina McCall

April 1, 2018
Historical survey of an early-20th-century initiative to control "promiscuous" women through forced quarantines.In the 1910s, citing venereal disease as one of the largest culprits of military disability, the U.S. government created what was called the American Plan, which resulted in thousands of women being incarcerated for their perceived contraction and transmission of sexually transmitted infections. Stern adapts his prizewinning Yale University graduate thesis on the subject for general readers. The result is a dramatic re-enactment of the plight of these involuntarily quarantined women, personified through the life of Nina McCall, a teenager who was targeted by health officials as a disease carrier (she was declared "slightly infected" with gonorrhea) and coerced into admitting herself into a women's detention hospital. Bolstered by the advent of neoregulationism, whereby health officials--not police--would filter, outlaw, and imprison women for disease and suspected prostitution, officials held the mass-arrested women for months on often sketchy evidence. Eventually, after simmering resentment turned to sheer outrage, a resistance movement began to develop, and dozens of women escaped, rioted, enacted hunger strikes, or set fire to their facilities in protest. According to Stern's meticulous research, others, including McCall, took the legal route and sued government officials for the torturous and barbaric "curative" treatments they had endured in the detention facilities. Using letters, diaries, articles, and archival records, the author intricately re-creates McCall's world and brings much-needed attention to the struggle of these persecuted women and their fight for justice. The author spotlights McCall's trial testimony, where she became a radical voice against female oppression and abuse and an inspiration to others. The book's academic tone is direct, informative, exacting, and well-suited for the grim subject matter it addresses, and it puts a face on the treacherous, sexist injustices committed by a misguided government.A powerful report on a relevant women's movement deservedly brought to light over a century after it occurred.

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May 1, 2018

Scholar Stern, expanding upon his thesis research, recounts the "American Plan," a World War I-era mass incarceration movement in which women suspected of being infected with syphilis or gonorrhea were forced to undergo gynecological examinations, then incarcerated and subjected to harsh, ineffective treatments. The story is told through the eyes of Nina McCall, who was imprisoned under the plan and afterward sued her captors. Although the focus is on Nina's experience, Stern weaves in accounts of other women across the United States. Notably, he shows how prisoners and former advocates resisted the plan. They were fighting against formidable odds, as many prominent figures of the day, including Franklin Roosevelt, John D. Rockefeller Jr., and Fiorello LaGuardia supported the program. Stern does not shy away from the horror of the plan and emphasizes the sexism and racism inherent in its execution, tracing its development through World War II up to the 1970s and lingering impacts today. VERDICT A chilling look at a sadly relevant period in American history. Highly recommended for readers interested in women's studies and public health.--Rebekah Kati, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

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