Margaret Sanger became one of the most vocal advocates for birth control at a time when the mere mention of such things was considered not only taboo but a felony. She pioneered the first family-planning clinicthe forerunner to Planned Parenthoodand became a lightning rod for the cause. In recent years, though, Sanger has been largely cast aside by the movement she spawned. In this lively new biography, the historian Jean H. Baker argues convincingly that Sanger deserves the vaunted place in feminist history she once held. Baker's nuanced account of Sanger's life emphasizes the passion of her convictions. Trained as a nurse, Sanger saw the dangers of unplanned pregnancyboth physical and psychologicaland made contraception her cause. Escaping to Greenwich Village at the height of the bohemian era, she found kindred spirits like John Reed and Mabel Dodge, who urged her to channel her passion toward social good. Sanger's staunch advocacy for feminine freedom extended to her personal life as well. Married and a mother at a relatively early age, she abandoned the trappings of home and family for a globe-trotting life as the figurehead of a movement. Notorious for the sheer number of her affairs, including ones with the British novelist H. G. Wells and the psychologist Havelock Ellis, Sanger epitomized the type of "free love" that would become mainstream only at the very end of her life. That she lived long enough to see the creation of the birth control pill, which finally made planned pregnancy a reality, is only fitting.