Anne Karpf

First published in 1988, Doctoring the Media by Anne Karpf offers a lively and incisive critique of how the broadcast media reports on health and medicine. From the wartime Radio Doctor to TV coverage of the AIDS crisis, Karpf examines the media’s portrayal of medicine as a triumphant conqueror of disease, often through sensationalized narratives of “miracle cures.” She critiques the media’s reliance on official medical definitions, neglect of the social determinants of health, and uncritical promotion of 1980s health fads, which she argues may have done more harm than good. Through case studies on childbirth, disability, alternative medicine, and moral panics over surrogate mothers, herpes, and AIDS, Karpf reveals the medical profession’s profound influence on media narratives and the challenges faced by medical program-makers. She also explores the cultural significance of medical dramas and comedies, uncovering deeper messages in shows like Dr. Kildare and Carry On Nurse. This engaging and thought-provoking book concludes by analyzing the real and imagined effects of medical programming on society and speculating on its future. With a new preface for this reissue, Doctoring the Media is essential reading for students and scholars of medical sociology, media studies, and sociology.

Here's a perverse truth: from New Orleans to Bangladesh, women--especially poor women of colour--are suffering most from a crisis they have done nothing to cause. Yet where, in environmental policy, are the voices of elderly European women dying in heatwaves? Of African girls dropping out of school due to drought? Our highest-profile climate activists are women and girls; but, at the top table, it's men deciding the earth's future. We're not all in it together--but we could be. Instead of expecting individual women to save the planet, what we need are visionary, global climate policies that are gender-inclusive and promote gender equality. Anne Karpf shines a light on the radical ideas, compelling research and tireless campaigns, led by and for women around the world, that have inspired her to hope. Her conversations with female activists show how we can fight back, with strength in diversity. And, faced with the most urgent catastrophe of our times, she offers a powerful vision: a Green New Deal for Women.

A deep and thoughtful look at what it means to age, how to do it well and why we care at all

Anne Karpf's parents survived the Nazi Holocaust. Her mother, a concert pianist when she was eighteen, was a survivor of Plaszow and Auschwitz concentrations camps. Her father survived several Russian labour camps. When they came to Britain in 1947, their pasts came with them. In this thought-provoking and moving memoir, Anne Karpf explores the profound impact of her parents' wartime experiences on her daily life. Combining a gripping account of her parents' survival, a sharp examination of the history of British attitudes to Jews and to the Holocaust, and turning an often wryly comic eye on the parent-child struggle, The War After is a fascinating and deeply touching story. When originally published in 1996 it was widely acclaimed:'Painful and honest.' Observer'Fascinating and revealing.' Literary Review 'Anne Karpf is a skilled storyteller, moving naturally between her own history and that of her parents in a way that neither intrudes nor distorts.' TLS'A vibrantly live memoir about growing up in a Holocaust home ... At times brutally sad, The War After is also a rich and funny exploration of the struggle between a child and her parents.' Independent on Sunday