Awards

• Winner of CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title 2015 (United States)
• Winner of Outstanding Academic Title 2015 (United States).

Overview

In The Antibiotic Era, physician-historian Scott H. Podolsky narrates the far-reaching history of antibiotics, focusing particularly on reform efforts that attempted to fundamentally change how antibiotics are developed and prescribed. This sweeping chronicle reveals the struggles faced by crusading reformers from the 1940s onward as they advocated for a rational therapeutics at the crowded intersection of bugs and drugs, patients and doctors, industry and medical academia, and government and the media. During the post-World War II ""wonder drug"" revolution, antibiotics were viewed as a panacea for mastering infectious disease. But from the beginning, critics raised concerns about irrational usage and overprescription. The first generation of antibiotic reformers focused on regulating the drug industry. The reforms they set in motion included the adoption of controlled clinical trials as the ultimate arbiters of therapeutic efficacy, the passage of the Kefauver-Harris amendments mandating proof of drug efficacy via well-controlled studies, and the empowering of the Food and Drug Administration to remove inefficacious drugs from the market. Despite such victories, no entity was empowered to rein in physicians who inappropriately prescribed, or overly prescribed, approved drugs. Now, in an era of emerging bugs and receding drugs, discussions of antibiotic resistance focus on the need to develop novel antibiotics and the need for more appropriate prescription practices in the face of pharmaceutical marketing, pressure from patients, and the structural constraints that impede rational delivery of antibiotics worldwide. Concerns about the enduring utility of antibiotics-indeed, about a post-antibiotic era-are widespread, as evidenced by reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, academia, and popular media alike. Only by understanding the historical forces that have shaped our current situation, Podolsky argues, can we properly understand and frame our choices moving forward.

Full Product Details

9781421415932

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Reviews

The author deftly handles the debates that festered around the appropriate roles of industry, clinicians and government in the production and use of antibiotics... The work is scholarly, exceptionally well researched, and worthy of serious examination for those interested in past, current and future efforts to frame and inform the public about antibiotic-resistant bacteria. -- John S. Haller, Jr. Pharmacy in History This remarkable book ultimately shows that antibiotic resistance is an issue of huge cultural import that spans many disciplinary areas and which cannot be completely understood in all its significance without understanding its history: it is surely necessary to know the molecular details of the biological processes through which microbes acquire resistance; but it is also necessary to understand the conflict between the various social forces that shaped the debate concerning the misuse, abuse and overuse of antibiotics. The book accomplishes this latter result formidably well. -- Davide Vecchi Metapsychology ... this book is a fascinating reminder that the benefits of antibiotics were squandered right from the beginning of the antibiotic era. -- Roger Poole The Pharmaceutical Journal The Antibiotic Era is about more than just antibiotics per se: it is also a rich and deeply thoughtful exploration of the contested process by which notions of therapeutic rationality have been developed, enacted, and resisted. As such, it should be read by both historians and other scholars of recent American medicine and by those interested in the use and misuse of antibiotics more broadly. -- Joseph M. Gabriel Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences With access to a wide range of archives from government agencies and academia, Podolsky takes us through a host of conferences, councils, courts, congressional hearings, symposia and task forces to reveal the tensions that grew since the 1940s between the pharmaceutical industry and medical academia, patients and doctors, and government and the media concerning over-marketed and irrationally prescribed antibiotics. -- Roger Poole The Pharmaceutical Journal Podolsky's historical accounts challenge readers to be mindful of what continue to be serious concerns within the global public health system. Choice The need for an assessment such as The Antibiotic Era has never been greater... This book's value will only increase over time, and is recommended beyond health collections alone. Midwest Book Review The Antibiotic Era should be mandatory reading for those in the medical profession and is well worth the steep learning curve for those with an interest in the field but from a different background. Inside Story ... an in-depth and well researched book. Nursing Times This book is carefully researched and persuasively argued... it is a fascinating historical analysis... Nursing Times We can thank the author for the effort and hope the lessons are duly noted and learned. This is an essential addition to every academic library in the health care professions. Watermark

The author deftly handles the debates that festered around the appropriate roles of industry, clinicians and government in the production and use of antibiotics... The work is scholarly, exceptionally well researched, and worthy of serious examination for those interested in past, current and future efforts to frame and inform the public about antibiotic-resistant bacteria. -- John S. Haller, Jr. Pharmacy in History This remarkable book ultimately shows that antibiotic resistance is an issue of huge cultural import that spans many disciplinary areas and which cannot be completely understood in all its significance without understanding its history: it is surely necessary to know the molecular details of the biological processes through which microbes acquire resistance; but it is also necessary to understand the conflict between the various social forces that shaped the debate concerning the misuse, abuse and overuse of antibiotics. The book accomplishes this latter result formidably well. -- Davide Vecchi Metapsychology ... this book is a fascinating reminder that the benefits of antibiotics were squandered right from the beginning of the antibiotic era. -- Roger Poole The Pharmaceutical Journal The Antibiotic Era is about more than just antibiotics per se: it is also a rich and deeply thoughtful exploration of the contested process by which notions of therapeutic rationality have been developed, enacted, and resisted. As such, it should be read by both historians and other scholars of recent American medicine and by those interested in the use and misuse of antibiotics more broadly. -- Joseph M. Gabriel Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences With access to a wide range of archives from government agencies and academia, Podolsky takes us through a host of conferences, councils, courts, congressional hearings, symposia and task forces to reveal the tensions that grew since the 1940s between the pharmaceutical industry and medical academia, patients and doctors, and government and the media concerning over-marketed and irrationally prescribed antibiotics. -- Roger Poole The Pharmaceutical Journal Podolsky's historical accounts challenge readers to be mindful of what continue to be serious concerns within the global public health system. Choice The need for an assessment such as The Antibiotic Era has never been greater... This book's value will only increase over time, and is recommended beyond health collections alone. Midwest Book Review The Antibiotic Era should be mandatory reading for those in the medical profession and is well worth the steep learning curve for those with an interest in the field but from a different background. Inside Story ... an in-depth and well researched book. Nursing Times This book is carefully researched and persuasively argued... it is a fascinating historical analysis... Nursing Times

The author deftly handles the debates that festered around the appropriate roles of industry, clinicians and government in the production and use of antibiotics... The work is scholarly, exceptionally well researched, and worthy of serious examination for those interested in past, current and future efforts to frame and inform the public about antibiotic-resistant bacteria. -- John S. Haller, Jr. Pharmacy in History

Author Information

Scott H. Podolsky is an internist at Massachusetts General Hospital, an associate professor of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School, and the director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine. He is the author of Pneumonia Before Antibiotics: Therapeutic Evolution and Evaluation in Twentieth-Century America.

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