This book traces the history of syphilis and efforts to control the disease in the United States, from Colonial times to the present.
Introduction Chapter 1. The Great Pox: Origins and European Background Chapter 2. A Secret Disease: Syphilis in America Before the First World War Chapter 3. Continence is Not Incompatible with Health: Syphilis in World War I Chapter 4. Congress Apparently Thought the Spirochetes of Syphilis Were Demobilized: The Interwar Years Chapter 5. Fool the Axis Use Prophylaxis: Syphilis in World War II Chapter 6. Magic in the Form of Penicillin: Syphilis in America Since World War II Chapter Notes Bibliography
John Parascandola is a lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Maryland. He has served as Chief of the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine, after which he became the Public Health Service Historian, a position he held until his retirement in 2004. He is also the author of The Development of American Pharmacology: John J. Abel and the Shaping of a Discipline (1992).
A wise adage directs readers not to judge a book by its cover. The
same can be said for a title and an alluring dust jacket. . . .
This is a book written by an eminent professional for the
serious-minded. Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through
professionals/practitioners.
*Choice*
Parascandola's history of syphilis is compelling from the
beginning.
*CDC's "Emerging Infectious Diseases"*
Parascandola provides a useful overview of the political and
cultural factors that shaped the history of syphilis and the
American public's response to it. His goal was to produce a history
for the general reader, and this nicely written book, with its
fascinating illustrations, should attract a wide audience.
*The Journal of American History*
…interesting and informative account of multiple discourses
regarding sexually transmitted diseases. . . . Sex, Sin, and
Syphilis is compelling, interesting, and informative. It is both
scholarly and accessible to the general reader. And it is timely,
in light of a current rise in the incidence of sexually transmitted
diseases.
*Bulletin of the History of Medicine*
This book contains enough information -- both charming and
thought-provoking -- to aerate any lecture. . . . Well worth the
price of admission is Parascandola's discussion of the Tuskegee
experiment. . . . That section provides one of the most powerful
discussions I've read on exploring the context of medicine to
extrapolate meaning. Likewise, Parascandola does an excellent job
of exploring the problems of syphilis infection after the
development of antibiotics.
*Journal of Social History*
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