“A powerful report on a relevant women’s movement deservedly brought to light over a century after it occurred.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“Before reading this book, I had never heard of either the American Plan or Nina McCall. After reading it, I will be unlikely to forget either. Scott W. Stern has done a remarkably thorough job of laying out the evidence, brick by brick by brick, that damns the systematic incarceration of women with dubious sexual histories as one of the more shameful chapters in our nation’s history.” (Anne Fadiman, author of the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down)

“In gripping and vivid detail, this book describes government officials, judges, and physicians who worked together for much of the twentieth century to surveil, imprison, experiment upon, and forever traumatize countless women. Perhaps more important, this book introduces us to brave women who refused to accept this barbaric treatment and who, against great odds, finally brought those same men to account. As the author makes clear, we must learn their story because what happened to them then could well happen to us now.” (Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize winning-author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy)

“In this time of ‘reckoning’ about sexual assault and harassment, Scott Stern’s book offers a powerful historical reminder of the state’s role in the incarceration of women and girls during World War I and its aftermath. Indeed, through remarkable new research, he shows the long persistence of laws to quarantine women who were deemed - often without evidence - to pose dangers of sexuality and disease. In Stern’s riveting narrative, Nina McCall’s story is both sobering and shocking.” (Allan M. Brandt, author of No Magic Bullet: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States Since 1880)