American Health Quackery: Collected Essays of James Harvey Young

Awards:   Short-listed for Choice Magazine Outstanding Reference/Academic Book Award 1993 Short-listed for Choice's Outstanding Academic Books 1993 (United States) Shortlisted for Choice Magazine Outstanding Reference/Academic Book Award 1993.
Author:   James Harvey Young
Publisher:   Princeton University Press
Volume:   4593
ISBN:  

9780691630304


Pages:   312
Publication Date:   19 April 2016
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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American Health Quackery: Collected Essays of James Harvey Young


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Awards

  • Short-listed for Choice Magazine Outstanding Reference/Academic Book Award 1993
  • Short-listed for Choice's Outstanding Academic Books 1993 (United States)
  • Shortlisted for Choice Magazine Outstanding Reference/Academic Book Award 1993.

Overview

"James Harvey Young, the foremost expert on the history of medical frauds, finds quackery in the 1990s to be more extensive and insidious than in earlier and allegedly more naive eras. The modern quack isn't an outrageous-looking hawker of magic remedies operating from the back of a carnival wagon, but he knows how to use antiregulatory sentiment and ingenious promotional approaches to succeed in a ""trade"" that is both bizarre and deceitful. In The Toadstool Millionaires and The Medical Messiahs, Young traced the history of health quackery in America from its colonial roots to the late 1960s. This collection of essays discusses more recent health scams and reconsiders earlier ones. Liberally illustrated with examples of advertising for patent medicines and other ""alternative therapies,"" the book links evolving quackery to changing currents in the scientific, cultural, and governmental environment. Young describes varieties of quackery, like frauds related to the teeth, nostrums aimed at children, and cure-all gadgets with such names as Electreat Mechanical Heart.The case of Laetrile illustrates how an alleged vitamin for controlling cancer could be ballyhooed and lobbied into a national mania, half the states passing laws giving the cyanide-containing drug some special status. And AIDS is the most recent example of an illness that, tragically, has panicked some of its victims and members of the general public into putting their hopes in fake cures and preventives. Young discusses the complex question of vulnerability--why people fall victim to health fraud--and considers the difficulties confronting governmental regulators. From the late 1960s to the early 1990s, the annual quackery toll has escalated from two billion to over twenty-five billion dollars. Young helps us discover why. Originally published in 1992. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions.The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905."

Full Product Details

Author:   James Harvey Young
Publisher:   Princeton University Press
Imprint:   Princeton University Press
Volume:   4593
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.90cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.595kg
ISBN:  

9780691630304


ISBN 10:   0691630305
Pages:   312
Publication Date:   19 April 2016
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Language:   English

Table of Contents

"PrefaceAcknowledgmentsPt. ITelling WhyPrologue: A Quota of Quotations on Quackery3Ch. 1Getting into Quackery6Pt. IISeeking PatternsCh. 2Quackery and the American Mind23Ch. 3""The Foolmaster Who Fooled Them""32Ch. 4Folk into Fake50Pt. IIIGiving CounselCh. 5Health Quackery: A Historian's Advice81Ch. 6The Regulation of Health Quackery89Pt. IVConsidering ThemesCh. 7The Long Struggle against Quackery in Dentistry107Ch. 8""Even to a Sucking Infant"": Nostrums and Children125Ch. 9The Marketing of Patent Medicines in Lincoln's Springfield158Ch. 10Nutritional Eccentricities165Pt. VNarrating CasesCh. 11""Euclid + Lincoln = Kent""187Ch. 12When Folk Medicine Flourished in the Shadows of Grady Hospital199Ch. 13Laetrile in Historical Perspective205Ch. 14AIDS and Deceptive Therapies256Index287"

Reviews

One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1993 This wonderful book contains collected essays of America's foremost historian of the patent medicine and health quackery industries... These essays demonstrate Young's excellent scholarship as well as his marvelous sense of humor and his witty use of the language... A fitting testimony to the excellent research and writing of the author. --Choice


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