ISIS: A Journal of the History of Science Society, vol. 116, no. 1, March 2025, 119-200
Li’s deeply researched book mines archives as disparate as the Kinsey Institute for Research, the Haeberle-Hirschfeld Archives of Sexology, and the Eugen Steinach-Harry Benjamin Correspondence archive at the New York Academy of Medicine. This allows her to craft a magisterial biographical narrative with texture and nuance, bringing together the personal and professional dimensions of Benjamin’s life. . . . [I]t is by siting Benjamin’s work within the dense network of figures associated with the early history of the trans-medical movement on both sides of the doctor-patient divide that Wondrous Transformations recreates the marvelous promise of hormone therapies in altering the body—opening the reader’s eyes to the powerful place hormone science once occupied in the popular and scientific imagination, as genes do in ours.
Rovel Sequeira, ISIS: A Journal of the History of Science Society
Journal of American History, March 2025, 831-832
Alison Li’s Wondrous Transformations is an excellent biography of Harry Benjamin (1885–1986). It is deeply researched, clearly written, and remarkably skillful in placing this marginal figure in the medical profession at the center of the history of transsexual people in the United States. . . . Li is a sure-handed guide through the complicated science of this story. . . . Kudos to Li for telling [Benjamin’s] story so well.
James H. Jones, Journal of American History
Journal of Social History, 18 November 2024, 59, 1-3
“The biography provides an eminently readable and compelling argument that there is more continuity across the mid-twentieth century development of trans medicine than is often appreciated….Li shows how tracing a life can serve as a corrective to studies examining only select facets of a career.”
Jacob D. Moses, journal of social history
American Historical Review, December 2024, 129, no. 4
“The book is a thorough, revealing narrative of Benjamin’s life, from his upbringing in antisemitic nineteenth-century Berlin to his grumpy but sociable old age in New York. Li’s rich scene-setting and the colorful anecdotes from Benjamin’s diaries make for an often enjoyable biography…..Li provides an indispensable summary of the development of endocrinology and its larger cultural significance, making this book essential reading for medical historians as well as scholars of trans history….The result is a biography that, in many ways, resembles its subject: consistently well-meaning, incredibly useful in many respects, missing opportunities for radicalism in others, and ultimately leaving space for people of the future, especially trans people, to build on its pathbreaking foundations.”
kit heyam, american historical Review
The Gay & Lesbian Review, September-October, 2024
“Other medical historians…have documented Benjamin’s pioneering work in the incredibly productive last third of his life. However, Li provides the much anticipated full appraisal of his many contributions to gerontology, sexology, and endocrinology. Her access to German archival source documents was indispensable to this project. Her meticulous scholarship does not hamper her lively storytelling. While I can have imagined a more politically or theoretically censorious take on Benjamin, it was a relief not to hear any of that shrillness. Ultimately, Alison Li’s biography is as affectionate as Christine Jorgensen’s dedication, representing many years of being engrossed in the life of Harry Benjamin.
Vernon rosario, The gay & Lesbian review
Journal of the History of Behavioral Sciences 26 June 2024, 60, no. 3
“I’ll admit that when I agreed to review Alison Li’s Wondrous Transformations, it was with some trepidation….I still have questions in that regard, but I found myself compelled by Li’s thorough research and dogged attention to detail, and the subtle but persuasive argument woven into her vibrant narrative of Benjamin’s long life and career….On the whole, Wondrous Transformations is a welcome contribution to trans history, the history of sex science, and broader conversations about cross‐Atlantic knowledge production in the twentieth century. It is a lively read, and eminently approachable, even if this is your first foray into the history of sexology. Li did not manage to convince me that Benjamin is a sympathetic figure, but her work tremendously expands our collective knowledge of his thinking, his motivations, and his location in the whirlwind development of sex research.”
beans velocci, journal of the history of behavioral sciences
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 8 September 2024, XX, 1-2
“[Li] articulates and argues for a view of Benjamin that sees his involvement in trans medicine not as the radical act of a retiring doctor in his eighties, but instead as a natural point of progression from his existing work and interests….a biography of Benjamin’s life has been needed for some time and Li’s book is — by and large — a good one. It is likely to be of interest to historians of trans medicine, and — through the connections it draws between Benjamin’s life and developments in Weimar-era Germany — pairs nicely with recent scholarship focused on the history (and transatlantic nature) of much of sexology during the early twentieth century.”
Os Keyes, Journal of the History of medicine and Allied Sciences
Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 98, no. 2, Summer 2024, 330-332
“…this is a very readable book, and I hope it will be widely read, especially by politicians and journalists, so that today’s debates about gender-affirming care are better informed now that they have been around for a hundred years.”
ketil slagstad, Bulletin of the History of Medicine
Contingent Magazine, July 28, 2024
“Wondrous Transformations is cultural history masterfully interwoven with medical history which highlights not only how scientific innovation impacts our society at large but also the influence of popular culture on the propagation of scientific innovation.”
Leslie whitmire, Contingent Magazine
H-Net Reviews in the Humanities & Social Sciences, June 2024
“…A commendable, extensively researched, long-overdue examination of Benjamin’s life. Li convincingly demonstrates that historical biography reveals more than just an individual life, but instead, helps humanize larger phenomena, in this case, sweeping scientific changes that shaped our modern world in familiar and unexpected ways….This book deserves a wide audience.”
Ryan M. Jones, H-Net Reviews in the Humanities & Social Sciences
MedHum.org, May 2, 2024
“Using intimate diaries, letters, and interviews in both German and English, Alison Li has written a sensitive, insightful biography that not only traces this remarkable life, but also tracks the birth of endocrinology and the advent of an unprecedented discursive consciousness that challenged social norms. Her earlier biography of J.B. Collip, biochemist of insulin fame, provided her with extensive knowledge of emerging hormones; she handles the technicalities with deft, accessible prose.”
Jacalyn Duffin, MedHum.org
Social History of Medicine, April 20, 2024
“On Li’s telling, Benjamin’s life serves as a fascinating vehicle for the story of hormones in the twentieth-century medical and cultural imagination…. Skilfully composed as a scholarly trade book, Wondrous Transformations will be an important book for historians of medicine, usable in university courses, but also accessible to a wide non-specialist audience interested in the transgender revolution.”
Robert Brain, Social History of Medicine
Choice, June 2024, Vol. 61 No. 10
“This thoughtful, thoroughly researched history provides a foundation and a lens through which to better understand contemporary issues of gender identity.”
J.M. Morris, Choice
The Watermark, XLVII no. 1 (Winter 2024), pg 23-26
“Wondrous Transformations excels at painting a vibrant portrait of Benjamin….Li’s engaging prose harnesses the affordances allowed in biography to craft an engrossing narrative. She has done an admirable job in bringing the two halves of Benjamin’s career together, and her work is a great service to the fields of trans history and the history of hormones.”
Shir bach, The watermark
Publishers Weekly, October 2, 2023
“Li’s accessible account narrates many intriguing episodes and conjunctures in the rise of transgender medicine…the result is a smart and highly readable contribution to transgender studies.”
Publishers weekly