Book Description

Reviews (12)

A Quick Interesting Read
Author Anthony Bourdain provides the reader with a quick 148 page story of Mary Mallon, known to history as Typhoid Mary. Mary worked as a cook in the New York City area at the turn of the 20th century and unwittingly spread typhoid germs to those she served, although she, herself, appeared healthy. Author Bourdain goes into detail as to how Mary was tracked down and fingered as the culprit in the spreading of typhoid. Mary strongly denied her role in the spreading of the germs to those she served. Mary spent the last years of her unhappy life on North Brother island located just north of Riker's Island in New York City. The author also provides us with living conditions in New York City at the turn of the 20th century.I had heard of Typhoid Mary and this quick read will fill you in with some very interesting details in her life. The author concludes the book with a visit he made to Mary's grave in the Bronx in 1973 in which he, himself a cook, left his first chef's knife at the base of Mary's stone behind the tall grass as a gift to her as he said, "from cook to cook." This book will also make you think about the cleanliness of restaurants you eat in today.

An old story from a new viewpoint
In Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical, Anthony Bourdain combines his skills and experiences as a chef with his unique writing talents to bring to life an often feared individual. Mary Mallon a.k.a. "Typhoid Mary" was a cook not unlike Bourdain himself, thus he is especially qualified to speak on her behalf. Most other books regarding the subject matter are either epidemiological in nature, treating her as just another case history, or historical in nature, viewing her as just another in a long line of events and placing a vast gulf between the reader and Mary herself. Bourdain comes at it with a biographical bent. There is no science here. The author wants you to feel Mary's pain, her persecution (perceived or otherwise), her frustration with not being able to do the one thing she knew how to do in order to make a living, and Anthony does a wonderful job of it. It is a very quick read, but well worth it.

Ok...
I read this book for a project for a Criminalistics class for a Summer camp. I was looking forward to learning about Typhoid Mary and all about her problems as she lived her life carrying the deadly typhoid. I was a little disappointed to find out that a lot of the book was about the context of the life she lived in. I'm sure that for some...that would be a nice touch, but I was looking more forward to reading about the case than about society. But other than that, I thought it was a good read. I found myself laughing quite a bit, thanks to the clever way that Anthony Bourdain narrated this novel. Not a Number #1 choice...but not the worse i've read either. I'll let you decide.....

An energetic account of a willful woman
In this diminutive book (amounting to fewer than 150 pages), the robust Bourdain tells the stormy story of 'Typhoid Mary' Mallon. The author and subject, it becomes clear, are much alike. Both are cooks, iconoclasts, and outsiders. The personalities of the two resonate with one another throughout. For the most part, this is a charitable portrait of a misunderstood woman, but Bourdain also admits that Mary had a misanthropic side. In the later part of her life, knowing she was a carrier of salmonella typhi, she worked as a cook at a hospital for women and children! At the same time, she had been wronged by the system -- treated unfairly because of her gender, her immigrant status, and her station in life. Bourdain successfully gets inside Mary's mind, and those of the bureaucrats who hounded her. His speculations on the inner thoughts of the players in this drama feel accurate. The mystery of Typhoid Mary is energetically brought to life in this wonderful account set in early-1900's New York.

Entertaining but not great....
I was a bit disappointed by this book, but yet I still really love Anthony Bourdain's writing style. Bourdain's writing style is the main reason I kept reading Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical. Anyone who's had to write essays for school (especially essays based on research to back up an opinion), will be familiar with the style of this book. Basically, Mary Mallon's story, which, admittedly is very brief and could fill up about 10 pages, is strewn throughout 144 pages of Bourdain's historical research, contemplation, and witticisms. While this is interesting, it's just not really all about Mary Mallon (aka Typhoid Mary). That's okay - if that's what you're expecting. If you like Bourdain's writing style and sense of humor, then you'll like this book. If you want to really learn about the person known as Typhoid Mary, then you can probably do that somewhere else and quicker. This book is definitely good for entertainment value, but being someone who's had to write many of those "let me back up my thoughts" essays for school, I can see one when I spot one, and Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical fits the bill. ... Read more

Book Description

Winner of the 1983 Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize in American History, this is a landmark history of how the entire American health care system of doctors, hospitals, health plans, and government programs has evolved over the last two centuries. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Great history of American medicine
For anyone interested in the healthcare as a profession or area of study, I can't recommend this book highly enough. Despite the 20 years since its publication, Paul Starr's Pulitzer prize winner is still relevant today and in retrospect his projections made of the future of healthcare in America are surpisingly prescient.

The first book describes the development of the medical profession in early America providing a fascinating look at the social evolution of American society. The second book delineates the rise of doctors, hospitals and medical schools in latter half of the 19th to the early 20th century with the rise of science and a professional authority. The third book shifts the focus from the doctors and to the industry that medicine became as well as the various attempts at healthcare reform in response to rising healthcare costs.

My only criticism is that Starr should have devoted more pages to the root causes behind the rising healthcare costs that drove the reforms of the 1960-70s described in the third book.

Blame it on the AMA
This book traces the evolution of America's disjointed healthcare system, from the horror of the early hospitals to the formation of the medical profession. It also explains how, as the early profession was fighting for the right to exist, it took virtual possession of the rest of the healthcare system. Every Democratic president since FDR has attempted some type of major healthcare reform, only to be opposed by the American Medical Association (AMA) because organized doctorhood thought it had too much to lose.

This book is an effortless read for students of sociology or those that have a great interest in the history of medicine. Published in 1983, it easily predicts some of the current problems in American healthcare, because the powerful interests that determine the delivery of healthcare are still the same. It also predicts some of the circumstances that will finally bring America around to some sort of rational, universal, healthcare coverage.

Why the US has a private health care system
This Pulitzer Prize winning history of American Medicine does a lot to explain why the domain of public health is so small in the U.S., and why health in the U.S. is mostly a private, as opposed to public, matter. It takes some fortitude to get through, but it should be required reading for anyone who has ever wondered why, for better and for worse, the US is the only developed country that does not have social provision of medical care. Hint: It's not an accident. Recommended

A Comprehesive History
It was a pleasure to read Starr's enlightening, comprehensive journey of medicine in it's infancy to it's state in 1985. I hope to see an updated version filling in the intervening 17 years. An excellent book. I highly recommend it.

Starr review
A very accesible read. It easily combined my interest in social history and health care. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

The perfect gift for a nurse
This book is a great gift idea for all nurses. I bought one during my senior year of nursing school to help with a take-home exam. Not only did it help with the exam, but it was actually very interesting to read. The format of the book is nice because it has a timeline, and is organized by major historical events in nursing. Even if you don't like reading about history, the pictures tell a story themselves. It is a great coffee table book to have just to flip through and enjoy the beautiful artwork and pictures of nurses from past to present.

Every nurse should own this book
This book is a treasure for the profession of nursing. I saw the first edition of this book while a nursing student in the author's nursing history course. Dr. Donahoe performed extensive research in writing this book. It is a moving account of those things that drew me to the profession of nursing and a thorough education for those unaware of nursing's history. The artwork is phenomenal and shows how nurses have been captured in art throughout history as well. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (1)

A Fountain of Information in a Pot-Boiler of a Story
This book covers more than twenty-five years of the quest for a viable bacteria fighter recounting the lives of the major players and further depicting the slow progress of medical invention combating infection through all history. The most critical era of this story, however, is coincidently the most important and harrowing years of the 20th century. The all too real threat of a Nazis invasion of Great Britain served as the backdrop for this story's most vital moments.
Few would argue against the notion that the discovery and creation of Penicillin as a viable life saving medication is the most important medical event of the 20th century. Mr. Lax in a detailed, can't put it down, page-turner manages to incorporate the nuances of all of the disparate personalities of the main characters whose devotion to their science and unrelenting commitment to the saving of untold millions of lives refuse to be deterred by the often overwhelming obstacles that faced them each day. In this new century when bringing a drug to market is reputed to take upwards of 10 to 15 million dollars, we watch as Dr. Florey goes before his money sources for research at Oxford and other entities of the time in hopes of raising $100.00 for supplies and comes away with $25.00. (That's right, the decimal points were not misplaced) What we see to our amazement is that they made due.
Dr. Norman Heatley was a genius at coming up with a substitute for just about every necessary hospital research tool imaginable. We share his glee when he shows the rest of the team his latest Rube Goldberg contraption for making some vital process work.
There are countless anecdotes in the day-to-day stories of the mission's successes and failures, all notes and attributions are scrupulously noted by Mr. Lax.
Surreptitious night flights to America via Lisbon with blacked out plane windows, reminiscent of many wonderful movies of the forties portraying life risking events surrounded by war had me shaking my head not simply because of the inherent palpable drama but because it all really happened.
The Americans did lend support in terms of money and ingenuity but it was this team of Oxford scientists who would not be denied. Because of them millions of lives were saved before the end of World War Two and countless millions continue to be saved as a result of the second, third and fourth generations of anti-biotic drugs spawned by their initial discovery.
Mr. Lax has, to the great satisfaction of the reader, set the record straight. He gave credit where it was due without disparaging the reputations of any of many important contributors. It was pleasing and insightful to learn the true story of the greatest medical discovery of the century. Further, that these scientists did their work for the betterment of mankind rather than for the unabated lust for money and power that now confront us daily in news reports cannot be ignored.
My words and recollections only touch the tip of the iceberg that is this story, I urge everyone to pick up a copy of The Mold In Dr. Florey's Coat and then pass it on to a friend. Who knows maybe the notion of doing things for all of the right reasons might just start to spread. ... Read more

Amazon.com's Best of 2001

Early in 1998, New York Times science reporter and author Gina Kolata happened to be seated at a banquet next to the Nobel Prize-winning scientist James Watson. When Kolata asked Watson what was new in the world of science, he replied, "Judah Folkman and angiogenesis, that's what's new. Judah is going to cure cancer in two years."

Folkman, a longtime physician and medical researcher at Harvard University and Children's Hospital, was caught off guard by the excited news reports that followed Watson's remark, but there was good reason for excitement. For nearly four decades, when not busy doing such things as inventing the heart pacemaker and attending to hundreds of patients, Folkman had been puzzling out a peculiarity of tumors: at some point during their formation, they sent forth chemical signals that in effect "recruited" blood vessels to feed them. If those signals could be intercepted through well-targeted drugs, Folkman reasoned, and the blood supply to cancerous formations thus interrupted, then the tumors themselves might be starved to death, or at least to dormancy.

In this book, Newsday writer Robert Cooke offers an accessible account of Folkman's work on angiogenesis, or the formation of blood vessels, which may well point the way to new treatments for cancer and related illnesses. Following Folkman's roundabout trail, one marked by considerable resistance on the part of doubtful colleagues, readers will gain a sense of how medical research is conducted--and, almost certainly, a sense of wonder at the medical breakthroughs that, as James Watson hinted, are just around the corner. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Reviews (23)

A Modern Odyssey of Medical Innovation
This book clearly deserves many more than five stars.

Dr. Folkman's War contains many valuable insights including how to: Raise children to be outstanding people; be an astute observer about nature to unlock new lessons; pioneer in a new field of science; and be persistent about something important. When the history of medicine in the twentieth century is written, Dr. Judah Folkman will be considered one of the most important figures. This book is the most accessible and complete source of information about his remarkable life and accomplishments.

Dr. Folkman's research to date "has found applications in twenty-six diseases as varied as cancer, diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration, psoriasis, arthritis, and endometriosis." "Ordinarily, researchers working in any of these fields do not communicate with each other."

Angiogenesis looks at the way that capillaries are formed in response to the body's biochemistry to help and harm health. Tumors depend on this action to get the blood supply they need to grow. Wounds also rely on a similar mechanism to grow scar tissue.

I have been following Dr. Folkman's career for over twenty-five years, and heard him speak about angiogenesis just a little over two years ago. Because I felt I was well-informed, I almost skipped this book. That would have been a major mistake on my part. Dr. Folkman's War contained much new and interesting information that helped me to better understand the lessons of Dr. Folkman's life, as well as the future implications of angiogenesis.

Unknown to me, Dr. Folkman had also played a role as an innovator in implantable pacemakers, time-released drug implants, and specialized types of heart surgery before he began his serious assault on angiogenesis.

The discoveries had their beginning in 1961 when he was a draftee in a Navy lab in Bethesda, Maryland. He noticed that tumors could not grow unless they first recruited their own capillaries to bring an increased blood supply. "Over time, he convinced himself that there had to be some way to block the growth of those blood vessels." He was right, but it took a long time before he knew any of the answers.

In brief opening comments about the book, former surgeon general C. Everett Koop, M.D. and Sc.D. observed how this new science evolved. "In the 1970s, laboratory scientists didn't believe any of it." " . . . [T]he critics' objections were hushed for good in 1989." "In the 1990s, the criticisms came chiefly from the clinical side, and the pharmaceutical companies didn't want anything to do with angiogenesis."

The story is a very heart-warming one. Dr. Folkman's father was a rabbi who asked each member of the family each night what she or he had learned that day. He also constantly implored his son to "Be a credit to your people." His father clearly thought that Dr. Folkman would also become a rabbi. Having announced his attention to become a physician, his father told him, "You can be a rabbi-like doctor." This injunction was one he took to heart, often seeking out his father's counsel on how to console the families of his patients.

His first taste of how close mortality is to all of us was when his first two children inherited cystic fibrosis. The younger of the two died, and the older one needed lots of special care to deal with infections. This probably made him a better doctor, by helping him see things more from the patients' points of view.

Space constraints keep me from discussing the book's description of how angiogenesis developed, but if you like stories about trail-blazing research, you will be amply rewarded. The key hurdles are described, along with the blind alleys that were followed. Anyone reading this will see how important it is to add new skills to the study of any new subject.

I was particularly interested in the way that press reports tended to harm the progress of angiogenesis, either by annoying other scientists, attracting hucksters, or delaying key deals with potential partners. We often think about freedom of speech being helpful, but here the case is a mixed one.

My only disappointment with the book is that it does not provide as much clinical data about the drugs under testing now as has been made public. That material would have made for fascinating reading. There are also natural substances that can cause a tumor to shrink, and clinical studies have been very successful in growing and shrinking tumors for some time.

I suspect that some member of your family will live a longer, healthier life due to future treatments soon to be available using angiogenesis. This book is a great way to learn more about the subject now, so you can encourage exploration of these experimental therapies where possibly appropriate. If anyone in your family now has cancer, this book is must reading for you!

Dr. Folkman summarized the book nicely as follows: "Success can often arrive dressed as failure." "If your idea succeeds everybody says you're persistent. If it doesn't succceed, you're stubborn."

May we all live longer and healthier lives due to the emerging medical treatments using angiogenesis . . . that were helped by Dr. Folkman's persistence!

Persistence & vision overcomes dogma an ignorance.
Through long, arduous practice, Buddhists believe it is possible to remove the lens of self-interest and dogma to perceive "absolute reality," with "automatic compassion." After reading Robert Cooke's biography one believes that Dr. Judah Folkman has never looked at medicine any other way.

But the emperors of the scientific establishment have never dealt kindly with the boys who can't see their robes, as Cooke points out with several examples. (The Hungarian doctor who demonstrated that deaths from childbirth fever could be eliminated if doctors washed their hands was hounded by his colleages to suicide.) Dr. Folkman's heresy was the observation that tumors can't grow without stimulating healthy tissues to supply new blood vessels.

Fortunately for all of us, Dr. Folkman's vision has been matched by his persistence in pursuing it. In following Dr. Folkman's path from his boyhood in Ohio as the son of a rabbi, to Harvard where he gained his self-confidence, to the Navy research lab where his angiogenesis hypothesis first formed, and back to Boston as a pediatric surgeon-scientist, Cooke makes what might have been a difficult and technical story into an epic adventure.

In keeping with the fashion that writing a biography in chronological order is boring and passe, Cooke instead follows parallel thematic threads in Dr. Folkman's storied career. I personally found the resulting forward and backward jumps in time distracting, but not insurmountable.

It would have been enough if this were merely a story of scientific progress and the triumph of a new idea over entrenched dogma, but it is also the story of a man whose vision is matched by his devotion to his patients. It should be required reading for all prospective medical students.

Now angiogenesis-based therapies for cancer, atherosclerosis, blindness and arthritis are on the verge of exploding on the scene and Dr. Folkman's lab at Children's Hospital Boston is ground-zero. He and the generation of doctors and researchers that he has helped to train are revolutionizing huge swaths of medicine. When it happens it will seem like it was overnight, but those of us who have read Robert Cooke's book will know it was a lifetime in the making.

Dr. Folkman is my hero -- a story better than SeaBiscuit!
This book by Robert Cooke is incredible! Mr. Cooke is able to explain to the average layperson the medical concepts of angeiogeneis conceived by the most under-valued person of our time: Dr. Judah Folkman. Dr. Folkman is to cancer what Salk was to Polio! Personally, Dr. Judah Folkman is my hero! A real hero, deserving of the Nobel Prize....and I don't speak lightly. I am a cancer patient that has recently learned that my cancer (thought was beat) has advanced to my lungs. The ONLY therapy for me is in an ANGIOGENESIS drug therapy program for a drug currently in study and labeled as "PI-88." I am just so confident this drug will work. I am the only patient with my type of cancer cell (adenoid cystic carninoma), so I am a little bit more of a lab rat for this program.

God Bless Dr. Folkman and h is incredible perserverance! His story should be a movie----a tale better than SeaBiscuit! He is my SeaBiscuit!

LHH

Cure for cancer?
Chances are someone close to you has succumbed to the ravages of cancer, while you and the medical establishment could only sit by and watch the process reach its inevitable conclusion. The good news is, for nearly 40 years, Dr. Judah Folkman has been pursuing a cure for cancer -- or at least a way to fight tumors more effectively than chemotherapy or radiation -- that only until very recently has garnered serious attention. Dr. Folkman's theory is called angiogenesis, the process by which cancer cells emit an agent which triggers the growth of blood vessels to feed the growth of the cancer itself. For years Dr. Folkman's idea was basically scoffed at as the flailings of an amateur researcher, but Cooke shows how Dr. Folkman has perservered -- while maintaining his brilliant career as a physician -- and eventually, through a slow accumulation of experimental evidence, as well as the discovery of several antiangionesis agents, turned opinion around. Throughout this engaging and fascinating retelling of Folkman's journey, Cooke also provides an eye-opening account of the workings of academia, medical research, and their relationships to those Orwellian biotech companies you keep hearing about. The science is clear and vivid, the battle to defeat cancer inspiring, and the promise of victory -- thankfully, finally -- just around the corner.

interesting story, but ......
I work in this field of research. I do like the story of the persistance and creativity of Judah Folkman. However, the author stumbles in describing some of the science and the intellectual contributions of others that led to some of the Folkman lab's discoveries. After reading the reviewers' praise for Mr. Cooke's "detailed research " on the book's back cover, I was diappointed by some obvious errors in the book. I believe that most of the innaccuracies are the unfortunate result of the author's failure to corroborate all of his facts. He may have been in a hurry to get the book out, but I wish that he had taken a little more time to get the science and other facts straight. ... Read more

Book Description

A galvanizing narrative of the wartime role played by U.S. Army nurses—from the invasion of North Africa to the bloody Italian campaign to the decisive battles in France and the Rhineland.

More than 59,000 nurses volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps alone: 217 lost their lives (16 by enemy action), and more than 1,600 were decorated for meritorious service and bravery under fire. But their stories have rarely been heard. Now, drawing on never-before-published eyewitness accounts—many heroic, some mundane and comic—Monahan and Neidel-Greenlee take us to the front lines, to the withering fire on the beaches of Anzio and Normandy, and to the field and evacuation hospitals, as well as bombed and burned hospital ships. We witness the nurses—and the doctors with whom they served—coping with the physical and psychological damage done to the soldiers in combat. We see them working—often with only meager supplies and overwhelmed by the sheer number of casualties—to save the lives and limbs of thousands of wounded troops. With them we experience the almost constant packing up and moving on to keep up with advancing troops, foxholes dug under camp beds, endless mud, and treacherous minefields. The vividness and immediacy of their recollections provide us with a powerfully visceral, deeply affecting sense of their experiences—terrifying and triumphant, exhausting and exhilarating.

A revelatory work that at last gives voice to the nurses who played such an essential role in World War II. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

An Incredible Book About Incredible Women.
I have wanted to write this review since I finished "And If I Perish", but, quite frankly, I did not know how to start. As a lifelong reader, a woman of a "certain age" and an English teacher, I must have read thousands of books over the years. This one is, quite simply, the best book I have ever read. One of the jacket cover comments uses the word, masterpiece, that barely describes it.
The authors have done a magnificent job of weaving a seamless saga from the early days of WW II in North Africa, up through Italy and France and into Berlin. While I have read many books that chronicle the experiences of several people it was always difficult to keep them straight without a great deal of re-reading. Not so with these nurses, they are all recalled with no effort at all. While this is in no doubt due to Monahan & Neidel-Greenlee's formidable talents as authors, it is also because of these incredible nurses themselves. They were all of the things their daughters demonstrated about. They were brave, dedicated, self-reliant, tough, funny, compassionate, smart and inspiring. I am in awe of every one of them. They stand among the greats of the Greatest generation.
Monahan and Niedel-Greenlee have done us all a great service by telling this story. Thank you both.

It's about time!!!!
For way too long has this story been untold. What a great book!!! What a great Christmas/Hanukkah present to give to family and friends. If I had my way, every American would read AND IF I PERISH, as soon as possible. It makes clear in a very readible way that Americans owe their freedom not just to the men who fought in WWII, but to the thousands of women, who served on the frontlines in order to help bring our fathers, brothers, sons, nephews, and friends home safely. One scene that was particularly touching to me was when a young US Army nurse in Anzio, Italy is ordered to prepare the body of a sister Army nurse for burial following her death after German artillery shells fell on the hospital tents on the beach head. As she washes and dresses the body, the young Lieutenant talks to her friend and tells her how sorry she is, that they have to meet again like this. This scene is even more poignant in that it takes place in a large tent used as the hospital morgue and the young Lieutenant is literally surrounded by death. Army nurses are not usually the heros of books, but after reading AND IF I PERISH, I think they should be.

A Long Overdue Tribute to WWII Nurses
This is an extremely well written and interesting book, covering a part of America's World War II history which has been sadly neglected. Almost half of the 59,000 female nurses who volunteered for the US Armed Forces during WWII served overseas. During the course of the conflict approximately 1600 of these nurses were decorated for their actions, receiving Distinguished Service Medals, Silver and Bronze Stars and Purple Hearts, among other awards. More than 70 of these nurses were captured and 217 died of injuries and illness, 16 as the result of enemy action. The authors spent over a decade tracking down surviving nurses and their friends and families in order to compile this well documented, personal and most entertaining book. Several of the key figures are followed from their recruitment before and during the early stages of the war throughout the entire North African and European campaigns. The rich detail and often tragic first-person accounts of landing with the Allies, particularly in North Africa, and the hard learned lessons of American unpreparedness for war are told with stark straight forwardness by those who participated. The authors have professionally woven in the larger strategic backdrop, along with significant tactical explanations, in a manner that tells the reader how the nurses and their various hospitals fit into the bigger scheme of the war. The nurses come alive through their narration, putting a very human face on horrific living and working conditions as their units keep close to the combatants. The portion of the book dealing with the nurses' struggles on the Anzio beachhead brings into sharp focus their absolute dedication to their profession under the most extreme of circumstances. This book is exceptionally well researched, with numbers and types of casualties treated in the various theaters of war routinely given, clearly putting emphasis to the great magnitude of what was being accomplished. A number of excellent photographs throughout the text show quite graphically the dangers of front line nursing and hospitals, the faces of the primary narrators and the environments in which they labored. This book will be a wonderful companion to the other great histories of WWII and is highly recommended.

Heroism Under Fire
I found this book to be a gripping account of an era of unselfish dedication to ones duty to both country and professional calling. Credibility is gained from strong first party stories that resulted from meticulous research by the authors. For me, perhaps the greatest inspiration was in the picture painted by the authors of the evolution of the role of U.S. Military women in the 20th century despite the many obstacles they endured and overcame both inside and outside the military and political institutions of the time.

I Learned So Much More About WW II and the Nursing Professio
This book looks at the European theater of World War II from the prospective
of Army nurses and the hospitals that followed not far behind and sometimes
along with the fighting soldiers. I do not know exactly why but I learned so
much about World War II that I did not know before. Perhaps it is because I
identified with the hospital and medical environment. I spent my whole
career working in hospital maintenance and operations. I came to admire nurses
in the Veterans Administration Medical Centers for their knowledge and resorcefulness
and common sense. After reading this book, my admiration for the nursing profession
has increased even more. The book follows the lives of several nurses and also gives
a very enlightning overview of the whole war. The book is based on
completely footnoted research. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in history
or the medical and nursing profession. This book provides recognition for the vital
and very dangerous part nurses contributed to our winning World War II. ... Read more

Book Description

Alaska, 1925: the diptheria serum is 674 miles away. Without it, the people of Nome will not survive.

Nome, Alaska, sits on the edge of the Bering Sea two degrees below the Arctic Circle, and there are few more forbidding places on earth, especially in winter. Dr. Curtis Welch knew the signs of diphtheria, knew that his patients—many of them children—would die without a shipment of fresh serum.

The port was icebound and the nearest railhead was almost 700 miles away across mountains, rivers, and the treacherous ice of Norton Sound. A blizzard was brewing, and airplanes, in 1925, could not fly in such conditions. Only the dogs could do it. A relay was set up, and the drivers, many of them Native Alaskans, set off into the night at 60š below zero, often trusting their lead dogs to find the trail under feet of driven snow. The legendary heroism and endurance of the men and dogs in the Serum Run need no enhancement. Here, for the first time, their story is told in full. 34 b/w illustrations. ... Read more

Reviews (19)

A gripping yarn
This book is not only a gripping tale of heroic men and dogs working against long odds and unimaginable hardships to save Nome from an epidemic, it is a fascinating account of dogsledding, gold rushes, Alaskan history, and harsh weather. Some of the most interesting passages describe the weird acoustical effects and other strange and unfamiliar phenomena caused by extreme cold. Other reviewers have criticized these digressions for interrupting the narrative, but I found that they added depth and context. Hey, nobody seems to quibble about "Moby Dick" alternating chapters between story and natural history.

Great story, well told
For once the blurb on the back cover is accurate, ",,,the Salisbury's writing is as straightforward and honest as the men they are describing. This is a moving story, superbly researched and deftly told."

In the small town of Nome, in the furthest northwest corner of the coast of Alaska, a diptheria epidemic occurs in the winter of 1925. The town doctor knows he needs serum to save lives but he has only a very small supply. There are no roads or railways to Nome. The port is unreachable because of ice and the airplanes of the time could not take off because of the extreme cold. The only solution is to run the serum in by dogsled, across Alaska in temperatures of around minus 60 degrees.

This is a saga of the heroism of both men and dogs. Some of the dogs died as a result of giving more than they had to the race across the ice. Men had their hands frozen to the sled. But they made it and saved many lives. Both men and dogs displayed valour and tenacity in conditions beyond anything we can imagine.

In telling this deeply moving story the writers take the opportunity to show us the basic elements of life in the outposts of Alaska - the effects of the cold, the wind, the winter darkness, the isolation. The readers don't learn this, they FEEL it. The pace of the story builds from the discovery of gold at Nome in 1898 to the dramatic, heroic dash with the serum in 1925.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes reading about the outdoors and the courage of men and dogs in overcoming impossible odds.

Majorly cool book, in more ways than one!
I adore history. I love medicine. When you combine the two of those topics and do it well, then you deserve accolades for doing so. Salisbury and Salisbury did a phenomenal job with this (which I take is their first book together). I had known about the outbreak of the 1918 influenza that killed so many Native Americans (including the indigenous tribes of Alaska). I did not know about this particular outbreak of diptheria in Nome, which was, and still is basically out in the boondocks.

For those who don't know or don't remember, diptheria is the D part of the DPT vaccine given to all children, several time prior to school years. Diptheria and whooping cough are two of the most awful childhood diseases (though both can be gotten by adults). Diptheria is not just a sore throat. The combination of the toxins of diptheria and the immune system of the child's body creates a membrane that lies across the back of the throat effectively choking/suffocating the child. Prior to the vaccine, there was an anti-toxin created (which again I didn't know) but if the child had progressed this far with the membrane then death was the ultimate outcome. In those days, tracheotomies were not automatically done; the concept had not been introduced yet. And even if that were available, the lack of cleanliness would have still put the patients at risk with that type of medical interference. Cutting the membrane did not help, as apparently it could grow back. Really nasty stuff...and those parents who are into 'natural' do not realize that 'natural' was oftentimes a killer.

This book is not just a dry gathering of newspaper articles. The authors talked to those involved, whether the children saved, or even some of the remaining 'mushers' (or their close families and friends) concerning this very good example of quiet heroism. Not only is the writing terrific, but there are some great old photographs, maps (which I needed to follow), and even the footnotes were interesting. The authors wove stories into the story, because they had to explain to the readers the background behind the use of dogs to cross such forbidding frozen country.

Sometimes we need books like this to realize just how lucky we are to have the vaccines that are so automatically given to our children. This is a great story, a great epidemiological case study, a great tribute to the doctor and mushers who rushed to save the lives of so many.

Karen Sadler,
Science Education,

University of Pittsburgh

Traditionalist trump technology again
The Salisburys have combined an analytical review of the introduction of technology into a remote and nearly inhospitable region with a tale of exceptional courage and committment by a small group of ordinary men.

In 1925 a diptheria epidemic threatened the remote town of Nome, Alaska. Fortunately most of us have no idea of the terrible suffering and deaths from strangulation that await those, mostly children and natives, who contract such a disease. However, in 1925, diptheria was still known and epidemics were well known, the most recent one having been the post WWI Spanish Influenza, which had very high mortality rates in certain populations.

In 1925 Alaska, still a territory largely administered by Washington bureaucrats very unfamiliar with local issues, the argument had two vociferous sides. The traditionalists favored the use of the well-tested dog sled to transport fragile serum to Nome. Others led by businessmen and newspaperman, some with a commerical interest, demanded that an airplane serum drop be undertaken. In some ways this time was much like our own, with an unbelievable reliance on technology that has not really been proven under adverse conditions.

Ultimately the governor weighed the arguments and went with the well-proven dog sled, which was successful in delivering the serum, albeit after many deaths had occurred. The flying proponents lacked no courage or perseverence, but ulitmately were unsuccessful in a test flight.

Only 22 years after the Wright flyer lifted off at Kitty Hawk, airplane technology was not ready for the demands of this transport. The military had only very recently ever attempted any flying this far north, and it was only done under very controlled conditions and certainly not in the January blizzard that then prevailed.

The first part of the book is perhaps the most interesting part, where the Salisburys take us through a history of the development of Alaska and give us a sense of the remoteness and lack of access. Ports were frozen all winter. Roads, railroads, and telephone lines did not extend into the interior. Only the frontier spirit, willingness to come to another's aid, and survival skills acquired through generations of hard lessons allowed anyone to live in the territory.

worthy of sebastian junger's high praise
When Gay and Laney Salisbury (first cousins) were little, they became entranced with the larger-than-life bronze statue of Balto the sled dog in Central Park, near the Children's Zoo - and apparently they're not the only fans, for the caretaker of the Central Park Conservancy estimates that Balto's statue has lost a quarter inch of thickness at the hands of admirers. Armed with new primary and secondary documents, the authors offer an updated version of Balto and his brethren who, along with 20 or so mushers, carried critical vaccines from Nenana, just south-west of Fairbanks, to Nome, where diphtheria had broken out. The book offers up many tales of heroism that took place over the 5 days from Nenana to Nome, and the uncanny, mind-meld relationship between mushers like Leonhard Seppala and their lead dogs is inspiring and incredible.

The Salisburys offer a well-documented and sparely-told tale, unencumbered with excessive sentimentality or nostalgia for the time of the Alaskan sled dogs. The story takes a while to get off the ground, as the Salisburys lay out the gold rush background of Nome, but it rapidly picks up once Dr. Curtis Welch acknowledges the reality of the disease he's fighting. Great story of dogs and men - and the cold challenge of Alaska. highly recommended. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Dao of Chinese Medicine is the first Western text to shed light on the reality of the ancient healing arts of China, revealing that Chinese medical theories are based on important physiological findings.This is in contrast to the Western interpretation, popularized since the 1940s and 50s that Chinese medicine and acupuncture involve undefined energy and blood circulating through imaginary meridians.Unfortunately, the energy-meridian idea condemned Chinese medicine to be viewed in terms of metaphysical beliefs, limiting its acceptance into mainstream health care.It also led to a growing frustration to reinvent acupuncture in Western terms before understanding the true way (dao) of Chinese medicine.Dao of Chinese Medicine sets the record straight, explaining how ancient Chinese physicians eveloped a physiologically based medicine with the theories supported by human dissection studies and how Chinese medical theories are consistent with 21st century explanations about how acupuncture works. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

WOW- The Best English CM Book in At Least a Decade
I'm an acupuncturist, AND an author who puts Chinese medicine (CM) into layman's terms (see PulseMed.org). One of the most difficult things to explain is "What is qi?" and it's not fun responding to objections that Chinese medicine is unscientific or even occultic.

Kendall's book is an academic and scientific answer to these problems, a more accurate revision of our Western understanding of Chinese medicine, and a resource for all future western improvements on this ancient system.

As Philippe Sionneau says, and Kendall echoes, we must know Chinese medicine - what it really was in the past - before we can innovate intelligently.

Both Kendall and Paul Unschuld are doing a great service to English-speaking acupuncturists by using their scholarly skills to uncover more truths about Chinese medicine, and to question some of the popular conceptions of CM in the West. Of course, I don't take everything they say as gospel - I wonder about Unschuld because it's said he doesn't really like Chinese medicine, and we know he doesn't practice it. Yet, Unschuld's being an outsider can be a good thing, because criticism often leads to "iron sharpening iron," an improvement in our knowledge and understanding, or at least in our ability to cogently argue one side of an issue. Kendall, on the other hand, has practiced and taught Chinese medicine for decades.

I think some people in my profession will hate this book. Many of the "traditional" acupuncturists in America, as in France, are hopelessly enamored with the false idea of energy circulating in meridians, and some have even made this an integral part of their personal spirituality. They may not listen to Kendall's findings.

Some of my peers do not embrace "medical" acupuncture, an approach that Kendall claims and I agree is common sense: that we should learn Chinese medicine, then understand its parallels in Western medicine, and even subject CM theories to scientific validation.

Kendall explains what damage our misconceptions about CM have done to the system itself, and how it has slowed the Western medical community's ability to take it seriously and examine its insights.

I haven't read the whole book yet... indeed, some of it must be studied, and may be beyond those without a good grounding in neuroscience and immunology, but I think learning them in this context is well worth the effort. I'm happy to have a lot of the information about the neuro and immunomechanisms of acupuncture all in one place - I've seen some of this in various essays or studies, but this presentation includes drawings. And that is one strength of the book- most people are visual learners, yet so many books use only words. Kendall includes a plethora of charts and drawings.

This may not make it easier to explain acupuncture, but it will make our explanations a lot more credible. My patients always respond better to my explanation of acupuncture, which is based on neuroscience and PETScan findings, than they do to theories of energy circulation, and those I've told about Kendall's tying meridians/vessels in with blood vessels and qi with nutrients (ying) and oxygen immediately said, "That makes more sense."

Thank you Deke!

A MAJOR ACHIEVEMENT ...BEYOND EVEN JOSEPH NEEDHAM
As a Western-trained biochemist and a critical commentator of Chinese Medicine, I read Donald Kendall's book with keen interest. For more than two decades since the rise of popularity of acupuncture in the West, Chinese Medicine has been regarded as any other folklore medicine derived mainly from empirical experience with little scientific basis, despite the fact that it has been practiced for over two thousand years and has long been the only mainstream healthcare system in China until recent century. Even today, this healing art is still practiced as a complementary medicine in China and in overseas Chinese communities.

In recent years, the quest for herbal-based alternative medicine in the West has made Chinese Medicine increasingly appealing not only to the ordinary populace, but also to western medical professionals. This ancient healing art is said to have embraced the environmental, nutritional as well as emotional influence in its etiology and be capable of providing individualized therapies which could only be realized by the future pharmacogenomic approach.

However, to most westerners Chinese Medicine is as mysterious as the Chinese Ancient Civilization it belongs. The reasons could well be that the classical cannons of this healing art are all written in very concise and hard to understand ancient Chinese, and its underlying therapeutic principles are shrouded in the ancient Chinese worldviews of Five Phases and Yin-Yang. Furthermore, most attempts in the past to interpret the principles of Chinese medicine either do not properly recognize the ultimate consistency of its functional organ concepts with modern physiology, nor all together misunderstand its essential theories of disease etiology and balance of Yin & Yang due to inaccurate translation of the some of the critical concepts. All these have led to the misperception that Chinese medicine is a totally outdated traditional therapeutic system passed down merely by generations of empirical healing experience, with little scientific basis for verification and hard to reconcile with nowadays mainstream western medicine.

It is therefore an intellectual delight to find in Dr Kendall's new book "Dao of Chinese Medicine" a fresh interpretation of this oriental healing art in terms of modern physiology. The content of this book is logically laid-out in fifteen chapters starting from the quest for the Dao, i.e., the way, and the ancient beginning of this healing art, to the interpretation of many important concepts and principles of Chinese medicine, and finally to the different approaches in diagnosis and treatment which were adopted by the Chinese physicians over the centuries and are still practiced today.

From the start, what makes this book different from most existing English texts on Chinese medicine is that Kendall derived his source material by taking on new and more accurate translations of Huangdi Nei Jing, the most reverend cannon of Chinese medicine, and successfully demystifies the misleading idea that Chinese medicine is on based energy circulation through invisible meridians. As the readers will discover, ancient Chinese medicine is not just based on an ancient philosophy of Five Phases and Yin-Yang, but is firmly rooted in empirical physiological studies, which includes, against common customs of the time, post-mortem dissection.

... I consider Dr. Kendall's book a major achievement in introducing Chinese medicine to the West in ways even Dr. Joseph Needham could not achieve in his monumental work of "Chinese Science and Technology". With over 200 citations to more than 80 treatises of the Nei Jing, this book reveals the rational basis of this ancient healing art with modern insight which will be instrumental for future application, research and acceptance of Chinese medicine in the West. The Dao is a must read for students, practitioners of Chinese medicine as well as other health specialists and individuals who would appreciate the fascinating story of the great indigenous medicine of China.

By: Kenneth J.T. Li, Ph.D.,D.Sp.
Former Assistant Director, R&D, School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong University

Five Stars and Two Thumbs Up!
Wow! What a tour de force...scholarship, readability and impact! Someone finally makes acupuncture and Chinese Medicine REAL! If this were widely read, the medical profession would be more likely to give Chinese medicine the respect it deserves and the public would be even more enthusiastic about it. The western medical profession has largely patronized Chinese Medicine. The Dao of Chinese Medicine makes a strong case that this dismissal of Chinese medicine is misguided, and based upon flawed interpretations. Western writers early on misunderstood the historical origins of Chinese medicine and popularised the idea of an unknown "energy" coursing through imaginary "meridians". Dr. Donald Kendall in the Dao of Chinese Medicine sets the record straight in this refreshing book.

Dr. Kendall has long been respected in the international acupuncture community for his lucid explanation of the physiological mechanisms of acupuncture and for his attempts to bring the educational standards of the western medical model to the profession. Kendall is a scholar who reads the ancient texts in the original Chinese, and a highly successful Chinese Medicine practitioner and teacher. In the Dao of Chinese Medicine, he extends his reach to the full scope of Chinese medical theory and practice. Kendall has the gift the late Isaac Asimov had of making the complex and esoteric understandable. Primarily a textbook for western and Chinese medical students and doctors, it will also find an audience with healthcare decision makers and the public. Those who are inspired by a vision of a healthcare system integrating the best of conventional and traditional medical systems, will find their spirits soaring after reading Kendall's book. Medical doctors, academic and clinical researchers and medical practitioners of every stripe will feel far more confident about the rationale and validity of Chinese Medicine.

This is an academic book but it is also a great story. Kendall's documentation is meticulous and his style is engaging. The Dao of Chinese Medicine reveals an ancient medical system that stands up well to scientific scrutiny. Chinese medicine comes off as the equal of western medicine in many respects, and as its superior in other respects, particularly in its emphasis on prevention through attention to building immune function. Kendall traces the development of Chinese medicine from its roots in physiological studies including post-mortem dissections. This lead to a number of pioneering medical "firsts" including detailed descriptions of the cardiovascular system, the original discovery of blood circulation, the earliest descriptions of the immune system, information about the spinal cord, sensory and motor nerves, and the organization of the musculoskeletal system.

William Harvey's explanation of blood circulation in 1628 is considered the greatest single event in Western medicine. His work led to an era of scientific exploration in medicine and to the rejection of the mistaken ideas of Greek and medieval medicine embodied by Hippocrates and Galen. The fact that Chinese physicians made this discovery two millennia before Harvey does not diminish Harvey's extraordinary breakthrough, but it does put it in historical context.

The Dao of Chinese Medicine repudiates the notion that Chinese medicine is inscrutable, nonsensical or illogical. Kendall accurately translates the original source material and crosschecks it against contemporary scientific research, and so unveils the genius of the ancient Chinese physicians.

HMO administrators, clinical directors, and medical doctors now have the ability to appreciate the expanded range of valid options available for patient care. Other implications are the enhancement of patient choice and reduced healthcare costs, as safe, non-invasive, drugless alternative modalities of Chinese medicine can be justifiably and responsibly selected where they are appropriate. Students of Chinese medicine have a way to explain what they do in terms accepted by the consensus reality and to achieve more consistent and repeatable results through a deeper understanding of how the body and its internal and external aspects interact. The health-conscious public now has available a definitive source for gaining better understanding a medical system which may significantly improve the quality of their lives.

This groundbreaking book serves the international community well and enhances the concept of an integrative "world medicine". Five stars and two thumbs up!

Steve Paine, OMD
Listed Chinese Medicine Practitioner (Hong Kong)
Licensed Acupuncturist (Hawaii) ... Read more

Book Description

This book is the fourth volume of autobiographical essays by distinguished senior neuroscientists. This volume includes autobiographies by 14 notable scientists, who also discuss major events that shaped their discoveries and their influences, as well as people that inspired them and help shape their careers as neuroscientists. This collection of fascinating essays should inform and inspire students and working scientists alike. The general reader may also find the book absorbing, as they are essentially human stories about commitment and the pursuit of knowledge. ... Read more

Amazon.com

No small themes for historian William McNeill: he is a writer of big, sweeping books, from The Rise of the West to The History of the World. Plagues and Peoples considers the influence of infectious diseases on the course of history, and McNeill pays special attention to the Black Death of the 13th and 14th centuries, which killed millions across Europe and Asia. (At one point, writes McNeill, 10,000 people in Constantinople alone were dying each day from the plague.) With the new crop of plagues and epidemics in our own time, McNeill's quiet assertion that "in any effort to understand what lies ahead the role of infectious disease cannot properly be left out of consideration" takes on new significance. ... Read more

Reviews (32)

GREAT BOOK
I read this book for a history class and loved it. The thesis was interesting, the ideas well-supported, and the examples fascinating. McNeill writes clearly, includes the perfect amount of detail and factual support, and avoids esotericism. His claims, like components of a mathematic or scientific theory, complement one another in a convincing and cohesive fashion such that by the end of the book, one cannot help but be at least partially convinced of the important relationship between paracitism and human civilization throughout history. Plagues and Peoples is truly legitimate, fascinating and innovative. For those who have any interest in history, anthropology, sociology, biology, or a plethora of other fields, as well as for any who merely appreciate interesting analytical thought and are looking for a good read, this book is really one you won't want to miss.

pretty good of disease in society
Diseases has been a big factor in human development. Disease has helped dictate where people have been able to live and create civilizations, helped in the conquest of countries and created a whole series of social ills in congested urban areas. McNeill takes a look at the effects of disease through human society.

The first chapter Man The Hunter focuses on disease in early human history. The following chapter Breakthrough to History focuses on the development of agriculture and permanent human settlements. The next chapter, Confluence of Civilized Disease Pools focuses on the role disease had on early civilizations in places such as China and India. The next chapter is Impact of the Mogul Empire and how this early large empire had an effect on disease. The next chapter is Transoceanic Exchanges focusing on the spearding of disease between the Eastern and Western Hempshires and its implications. The last chapter is Ecological Impact of Medical Science Focusing on how humans have been able to control diseas through means such as vacinations.

Good book to get a better understanding of history.

A very detailed explanation of disease's role in history
Every high school history student knows that the Black Death swept through Europe, and that diseases like smallbox, measles and so on were decisive in allowing the colonization of the Americas. But these two statements while universally accepted, are generally left at that and the causes go unexplored.

This book is a very concise history of plagues and what built up to these two grim realities. McNeill goes much beyond these basics and provides in intricate details the events that allowed that to happen. What allowed these disease pools to eventually come into being? This book provides the details to the answer to that question from the early days of civilization in Mesopotamia to the effect that plague had on the periphery of the Roman and Chinese empires to the effect that the Mongols had in fully unifying this disease pool, and once a reality, the devasating effect that they had on the world.

In short, if you want to understand in fine detail the causes and events that built up the "eastern hemisphere disease pool", read this book.

One of the best
This is one of a very tiny number of books which I have bought in bulk and distributed to friends and colleagues. Although the prose style can be unnecessarily turgid and academic and will win no prizes, the ideas are so stimulating intellectually that one gradually ceases to notice the style. McNeill's central thesis, both original and plausible, allows one to review the entire history of civilization in a new light and to make testable and almost always correct predictions. Few books have the ability to so change one's view of history. I first read this book many years ago and it has held up well. Read and ponder. It may change your world view.

Will change the way you look at the world
This is one of those handful of books that will change the way you look at our world. History will never seem quite the same when you finish.
Several earlier reviewers have done a great job of summarizing and analyzing the book. It is unfortunate that this book was given as a high school assignment, and then the students were asked to review it on Amazon. Is it any wonder they gave it 2 or 3 stars, and said it was difficult to understand? Most 15-year-olds do not have the background to fully appreciate this type of work, and unfortunately their reviews skew the book's rating. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Feeling tired, achy, and congested?You'll hope not after reading science writer Gina Kolata's engrossing Flu, a fascinating look at the 1918 epidemic that wiped out around 40 million people in less than a year and afflicted more than one of every four Americans.This tragedy, just on the heels of World War I and far more deadly, so traumatized the survivors that few would talk about it afterward.Kolata reports on the scientific investigation of this bizarre outbreak, in particular the attempts to sequence the virus' DNA from tissue samples of victims.She also looks at the social and personal effects of the disease, from improved public health awareness to the loss of productivity. (The disease affected 20- to 40-year-olds disproportionately.)

How could this disease, now almost trivial to healthy young people, have become so virulent?The answer is complex, invoking epidemiology, immunology, and even psychology, but Kolata cuts a swath through medical papers and statistical reports to tell a story of an out-of-control virus exploiting an exhausted world on the brink of transition into modern society.Through letters, interviews, and news reports, she pieces together a cautionary tale that captures the horror of a devastating illness.Research marches onward, but we're still at the mercy of something as simple as the flu. --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Reviews (102)

The Amazing and True Story of Scientists and Amateurs
Gina Kolata's Flu is subtitled the Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It. It is much more the story of the latter rather than the former. An important book on the influenza pandemic and its historical impact is waiting to be written. This book, though, still has its value both as a fun read of scientific discovery and some very inept amateur bungling, as well as an interesting look at the politics behind science. The author is also very good at capturing the personalities behind the events. No important conclusions are drawn and no important theories of history are defended but this book is a wonderful examination of a process in science. A delightful read.

mediocre extended newspaper article, now dated
This is not a book about 1918. This is an over-hyped and overlong newspaper story about digging up bodies and trying to recover the 1918 virus from them. It's now (June 2004) much dated, which is what happens to newspaper stories.
If you want to read an actual book about the epidemic-- and about much more, including contemporary science, the virus, the interplay between politics and the disease-- then read The Great Influenza by Barry. Now THAT is worth picking up. I gave that 5 stars, and if I could give it more I would.

about right for the armchair crowd
If you're looking for a highly detailed and relatively technical discussion you might find this book a little light. However, if you, like me, have just the general exposure to the subject of epidemics, their causes and consequences, you are likely to have a good read here.

A couple times Ms. Kolata's prose and approach get a little dramatic but it doesn't get in her way as far as telling the story and a little honest feeling for the subject is hardly a bad thing.

Comparisons to 'The Hot Zone' are inevitable but not quite accurate. 'The Hot Zone' deals with diseases still very much a threat and almost supernaturally spooky in their virulence and mystery. 'Flu' is more a forensic look at a disease that is familiar and whose flirtation with serious mortality has, so far, been a one-time thing.

Say 'Ebola' to someone and they react: where is it? how bad is it? is this the time it will get loose? Say 'flu' and most people shrug. We've all been there, done that. Influenza is a familiar, if unwelcome, guest every year. Reading Ms. Kolata's book won't exactly have you hiding under your bed come next flu season, but you might not be quite so inclined to cavalierly skip the innoculation campaign either.

Great historical overview, rather weak storytelling
First, whoever designed the cover and spine of this book should be fired. While sitting on your bookshelf the neon green spine jumps out and the lettering makes it look like some cheesy sci-fi tripe. Which is unfortunate, because it's a very informative book and full of excellent research. It's odd that the great flu epidemic got relegated to an historical footnote, because it's scale was devastating and frightening. It's also likely that sometime in the future a similar outbreak will jump from animal to man in south China or somewhere similar. And the results today would dwarf the original flu epidemic and make SARS seem like a mild fever. This book makes for fascinating reading on these counts and it's very interesting to follow how the scientists went back to uncover the flu's origins.
Like many psuedo-historical books of this nature, however, the author is much less skilled as a writer than she is as a researcher. She tries too hard to inject the book with drama when the subject matter itself is sufficiently dramatic. Thus reading it becomes irritating at times because the prose and bad melodrama gets to you, but you nonetheless don't want to stop reading and not get all of the information.

Frightening but an excellent read
Highly readable though this book I'm sure was not written to make you an expert on the subject. If you know nothing about the Flu epidemic of 1918 nor other quasi flu epidemics and near misses that have occured since, this book will effectively acquaint you with all of them. I would say that Ms Kolata's style is somewhat journalistic breezy and and her presentation of the material to some no-nonsense type readers might be off putting. But to my mind she very carefully builds her story so that by the conclusion we have surveyed many of the players, including the various viruses, and then she let's us all down softly as no real satisfying conclusion seems available at this time. I particularly liked the details of the virus hunters and scientists and felt that these characterizations were absolutely necessary to the premise of the book. In fact I was quite inspired by their stories. ... Read more

Book Description

"Who are the mutants? We are all mutants. But some of us are more mutant than others."

Variety, even deformity, may seem like an unlikely route by which to approach normality, even perfection. Yet much of what we know about the mechanisms of human development, growth, and aging comes from the study of people who are afflicted with congenital diseases, most of which have genetic causes. Congenital abnormalities reveal not only errors within the womb, but also our evolutionary history.

In Mutants, Armand Marie Leroi gives a brilliant narrative account of our genetic grammar and the people whose bodies have revealed it, balancing both the science and the stories behind some of history's most captivating figures-including a French convent girl who found herself changing sex upon puberty; children who, echoing Homer's Cyclops, are born with a single eye in the middle of their foreheads; a village of long-lived Croatian dwarves; a hairy family who was kept at the Burmese royal court for four generations (and from whom Darwin took one of his keenest insights into heredity); and the ostrich-footed Wadoma of the Zambezi River Valley.

Stepping effortlessly from myth to molecular biology, this elegant, humane, and illuminating book is about us all. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Are Redheads Mutants?
Despite being the repository of many of my family's variant genes, I can't complain - I am a fully functional human being. That said, the fact that I am the first known case of inherited intermittent vertical nystagmus [at least that's what the doctors said at the time of my birth] has given me an above average interest in the genetics of human beings. Armand Marie Leroi's Mutants is an excellent introduction to genetic variety in human beings. Mutants could have been turned into a freak show by a lesser writer or one with the desire to titillate, but Leroi handles the subject directly and with the right level of sensitivity. In the introduction, Leroi demystifies the word mutant and concludes the chapter by saying

We are all mutants. But some of us are more mutant than others.

I especially enjoyed the fact that I was finally able to understand the genetics of my aunt's 6th toe and the fact that Leroi uses redheads to explore the boundary between mutation and polymorphism [I'm okay with the fact that being a redhead makes me a mutant].

Despite the way Leroi handles the material, this is not a book for the squeamish. The black and white illustrations may be disturbing to some readers. I think the perfect reader for this book would be a person with the background from a 9th grade biology class and an interest in learning more about human genetics. People with an interest in history and the process of doing science should also find much of interest in Mutants.

The Imperfections Show Us Who We Are
You are a mutant, and you have been since before you were born. You probably have three hundred mutations in your genes that impair your health in some way. Of course, that leaves a huge number of genes to correct any problems, and most of us don't look as if we stepped out of the X-Men comic books. "We are all mutants. But some of us are more mutant than others," says the evolutionary biologist Armand Marie Leroi in _Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body_ (Viking). Leroi takes a review of human mutations based on the wonderful principle that we get to understand how nature normally works by carefully examining abnormalities; when things go wrong, we know that there must be some important process going right most of the time. So there is extensive evaluation here of strange-looking humans, often with nightmarish defects. Amply illustrated, the book has engravings from centuries past to show that humans have always had a curiosity about such beings. Leroi's intellectual interest is far from morbid, however, and his lessons drawn from the monsters here are humane and increase our admiration for how often things go right, and how often those who were dealt a bad genetic hand can still play it well.

For example, Carl Herman Unthan was a violin virtuoso by age twenty, although he had no arms. Of course, not all such mutants are so successful. Harry Eastlack had a defect that told his body to make bone whenever it made any repair, so that bruises and tears would turn into bone, not healed flesh. The stillborn babies here are strange indeed. One has a second developed mouth in its forehead. Another child was born with over twenty half-developed fetuses in his brain. The book, however, is far from a chamber of horrors. Even the most bizarre of the mutants do show us things about the process of becoming and being a human creature. Conjoined twins, for instance, are closely examined here in many ways for many lessons, like how our developing bodies can know left from right. The deformities in limbs show the importance of embryonic limb-buds, a signaling protein called "sonic hedgehog," and "hox" genes that are the same ones that help keep our vertebral segments orderly. The same hox genes work to make the segments in worms. Leroi writes of the "breathtaking similarity" living creatures have in such arrangements, as evolution has built variations on the same basic plan. "We are, in man