The Second Oldest Profession

The Second Oldest Profession, devoted to an occupation that has been a source of pride and target of prejudice--wet nursing--is a provocative, taboo-busting, richly illustrated investigation. This page-turner of a case study, researched for more than thirty years, interweaves the personal, pictorial, political, and art historical and reveals, as Zucker notes, 'facts and fables, truths and lies.' --Joan Simon, independent curator and writer Barbara Zucker's unique book is a fresh and enthralling account of her search for the history of wet nurses across the ages and across cultures. It is not about art, but it is written by a feminist artist and amplified by visuals including her own interspersed drawings. Scholarly, honest, unpretentious, beautifully written with a quiet humor that includes the dual function/attraction of breasts as well as racism, misogyny, antisemitism, and always class issues. Surely wet nurses are not the second but the oldest profession: even ladies of the night had to be born and nurtured first. --Lucy Lippard, writer, activist, and sometime curator The wet nurse, 'revered and reviled' throughout history, is the subject of artist Barbara Zucker's book, aptly named The Second Oldest Profession. She reveals the history of breastfeeding another's child in beautiful illustrations and photos, which make it a pleasure to leaf through the pages. --Madeleine Kunin, former United States Ambassador to Switzerland and 77th Governor of Vermont Wet nurses, ubiquitous women in well-to-do Continental households until the beginning of the twentieth century, are the subject of Barbara Zucker's wonderfully informative and sympathetic cross-cultural investigation. This book is as readable as it is handsome. --Edmund White, author and recipient of the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction