| Medicating Modern America: Prescription Drugs in History Contributor(s): Tone, Andrea (Editor), Watkins, Elizabeth Siegel (Editor) |
|
 |
ISBN: 0814783007 ISBN-13: 9780814783009 Publisher: New York University Press OUR PRICE: $88.11 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: January 2007 Annotation: View the Table of Contents. Read the Introduction. "Nowhere do pharmaceutical companies sell more drugs, make more money, affect more lives, or wield more power than in the United States. These sophisticated but accessible essays trace the history of eight types of prescription blockbusters, from antibiotics to Viagra, and show how they have changed Americans' thinking about disease, consumer rights, and normality itself. They force us to confront the paradox of a pill-taking society that wages war on some drugs but avidly seeks out others to economically profitable if not always therapeutically benign effect." With Americans paying more than $200 billion each year for prescription pills, the pharmaceutical business is the most profitable in the nation. The popularity of prescription drugs in recent decades has remade the doctor/patient relationship, instituting prescription-writing and pill-taking as an integral part of medical practice and everyday life. Medicating Modern America examines the meanings behind this pharmaceutical revolution through the interconnected histories of eight of the most influential and important drugs: antibiotics, mood stabilizers, hormone replacement therapy, oral contraceptives, tranquilizers, stimulants, statins, and Viagra. All of these drugs have been popular, profitable, influential, and controversial, and the authors take a historical approach to studying their development, prescription, and consumption. This perspective locates the histories of prescription medicines in specific cultural contexts while revealing the extent to which contemporarydebates about pharmaceutical drugs echo concerns voiced by Americans in the past. Exploring the rich and multi-faceted history of pharmaceutical drugs in the United States, Medicating Modern America unveils the untold stories behind America's pharmaceutical obsession. Contributors include: Robert Bud, Jennifer R. Fishman, Jeremy A. Greene, David Healy, Suzanne White Junod, Ilina Singh, Andrea Tone, and Elizabeth Siegel Watkins. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Medical | History - Medical | Pharmacy - History | United States - 20th Century |
| Dewey: 615.1 |
| LCCN: 2006022746 |
| Physical Information: 0.75" H x 6" W x 9" (1.19 lbs) 262 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 20th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: With Americans paying more than $200 billion each year for prescription pills, the pharmaceutical business is the most profitable in the nation. The popularity of prescription drugs in recent decades has remade the doctor/patient relationship, instituting prescription-writing and pill-taking as an integral part of medical practice and everyday life. |
Contributor Bio(s): Tone, Andrea: - Andrea Tone is Canada Research Chair in the Social History of Medicine at McGill University. She is the author, most recently, of Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America. Watkins, Elizabeth Siegel: -Elizabeth Siegel Watkins is associate professor of the History of Health Sciences at the University of California at San Francisco and the author of On the Pill: A Social History of Oral Contraceptives, 1950-1970. |
