Kim E. Nielsen explores a life at once irregular and unexceptional. Historical and institutional structures, like her whiteness and laws that liberalized divorce and women's ability to control their property, opened up uncommon possibilities for Ott. Other structures, from domestic violence in the home to rampant sexism and ableism outside of it, remained a part of even affluent women's lives. Money, Marriage, and Madness tells a forgotten story of how the legal and medical cultures of the time shaped one woman—and what her life tells us about power and society in nineteenth century America.
| Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Mrs. Anna Miesse, Local Doctor's Wife 2. The Questions of 1855 3. Miesse v. Miesse, 1856 4. The Questions of 1856 5. Dr. Anna B. Ott, Local Doctress 6. Anna Ott, Insane Asylum Inmate 7. Anna Ott, Economic Agent 8. Remembering Anna Ott Notes Bibliography Index Back Cover |"Kim Nielsen's Money, Marriage, and Madness: The Life of Anna Ott is a brief, beautifully written, and wholly original biography. . . . As Nielsen tells Ott's life story, she examines the relationship between interlocking power structures—race, gender, class, ability, and settler colonialism—and personal circumstances. . . . A wonderful read." —Indiana Magazine of History"Nielsen brilliantly contrasts the differences that occurred once Ott swiveled from doctor to patient . . . a powerful way of backing into the story of a life that would otherwise be completely lost." —Annals of Iowa
"Ott's story is both compelling in itself and revealing about the broader society she inhabited." —Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
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Kim E. Nielsen is a professor and director of the disability studies program at the University of Toledo. Her books include A Disability History of the United States and Beyond the Miracle Worker: The Remarkable Life of Anne Sullivan Macy and Her Extraordinary Friendship with Helen Keller.