Skip to main content
Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver

Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver

Current price: $32.50
Publication Date: May 17th, 2008
Publisher:
W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN:
9780393331561
Pages:
542
Usually Ships in 1 to 5 Days

Description

"A timely, fair-minded and crisply written account."—New York Times Book Review

Vaccine juxtaposes the stories of brilliant scientists with the industry's struggle to produce safe, effective, and profitable vaccines. It focuses on the role of military and medical authority in the introduction of vaccines and looks at why some parents have resisted this authority. Political and social intrigue have often accompanied vaccination—from the divisive introduction of smallpox inoculation in colonial Boston to the 9,000 lawsuits recently filed by parents convinced that vaccines caused their children's autism. With narrative grace and investigative journalism, Arthur Allen reveals a history illuminated by hope and shrouded by controversy, and he sheds new light on changing notions of health, risk, and the common good.

About the Author

Arthur Allen has written for the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, the Associated Press, Science, and Slate. His books include Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine’s Greatest Lifesaver. He lives in Washington, where he writes about health for Politico.