A Q&A with Erika Janik

Happy publication day to Erika Janik and her new book Pistols and Petticoats: 175 Years of Lady Detectives in Fact and Fiction! Pistols and Petticoats is a lively exploration of the struggles women have faced in law enforcement and in mystery fiction since the late nineteenth century. Working in a profession considered to be strictly a man’s domain, investigating women were nearly always at odds with society. These sleuths and detectives refused to let that stop them, and paved the way to a modern professional life for women on the force and in popular culture. We caught up with Janik to ask her about the social implications of women joining the police force, “murder as entertainment,” and how the reality of policewomen compares with the stories told in the crime genre. Read more →

Caitlin Meyer, senior publicist at Beacon Press, has some book recommendations (and a recipe!) just in time for Chanukah. Read more →

Historian Erika Janik, author of 'Marketplace of the Marvelous,' profiles several women who were pioneers in the field of medicine. Read more →

Erika Janik, author of 'Marketplace of the Marvelous,' takes readers on a visual tour of early medical beliefs, and the current practices they inspired. Read more →

Erika Janik's Markeplace of the Marvelous documents the strange, sometimes bizarre paths that contemporary medicine took on its way to becoming the modern scientific practice we know it to be today. Read more →