"What is the connection between middle-class women of the 19th century with the maimed soldiers of the First World War? What do the Weimar Republic's "New Woman" and the subjects of public health campaigns have in common? As Annelie Ramsbrock reveals in this fascinating history, they were all part of an ongoing historical debate in Germany over cosmetics and cosmetic surgery. Covering a wide historical scope from the Enlightenment to the emergence of National Socialism, this book shows that basic ideals of beauty have always been closely related to a society's conception of itself, from organ transplants to the manufacture of cosmetics to scientific research. At the same time, body modification has also presented new ways to subvert or radically reimagine the social order"--