An engaging slice of recent medical history and controversy.
In this debut book on the history of medicine, Hughes does a remarkable job of balancing the researcher’s precision with the storyteller’s understanding of his audience. Hughes traces the shifts in the medical community’s understanding of ulcers and their causes, focusing on the last two decades of the 20th century and the gradual acceptance of bacteria as the cause of the disease, a process that took more than a decade. That acceptance was the result of research done by physicians outside the mainstream medical establishment, and Hughes is unstinting in his indictment of the pharmaceutical companies who, he says, used their financial power to discredit the bacterial theory, which threatened the profitable market for Zantac and Tagamet. Readers whose knowledge of anatomy is taxed by the game of Operation will have little trouble following Hughes’ explanations of Helicobacter’s role in making holes in the stomach lining thanks to you-are-there descriptions of endoscopies, stomach tubes and researchers’ adventures in conducting experiments on themselves. The writing—while suffering from minor but frequent misplacement of commas—is energetic and often witty, as when Hughes compares drug sales representatives at conferences to “a gastric cell and a swarm of Helicobacter” or writes that “Dr. Tytgat, like a Protestant reformer, nailed the thesis of treatment successes to the conference record.” Hughes describes his own minor role in advancing the bacterial theory—he counseled Sen. Ted Kennedy’s staff to promote Helicobacter research—and there is no coyness about his position as a passionately interested participant. That passion shows as the book traces the long tension between treatment and profit, demonstrating the substantial power held by major pharmaceutical companies looking to protect their investments. Despite the strength of the opponents, this book is the story of the triumph of knowledge and evidence, and Hughes concludes with both the establishment’s acceptance of bacterial theory and a sense of hope for the future of medicine.
A well-written story of medicine, money and politics written by a knowledgeable physician.
Pub Date: April 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1941142172
Page Count: 298
Publisher: The Great Ulcer War
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
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