Starved for Light

“Rickets is one of those diseases that seem incredibly old-fashioned. It’s difficult to comprehend, now, how widespread this bone ailment once was: In some cities less than a century ago, 90% of children showed symptoms of rickets during wintertime. But ubiquity has its benefits. In Starved for Light, Warren convincingly argues that modern medicine would be unrecognizable without the many advances in treatment that trace their roots to this once-widespread disease.”  * Wall Street Journal *“Warren in his valuable new book Starved for Light deepens our understanding of many ways that disease can move through populations and time… . Warren’s historical study of rickets engages productively with the disease’s intricate biology. He explores how a disease that is sensitive to environmental and nutritional conditions responded in manifold ways to societal changes and inequalities. His approach offers many surprising and valuable insights.” * The Lancet *“Warren’s Starved for Light is an ambitious book, one that persuasively challenges the long-held view that rickets was a condition of the past and places it at the center of a broader medical, biotechnological, environmental, and social history… . [Warren] took on a medical condition that, gruesome though it was, might have at first appeared limited in scope to a reader, and he opened it up to broad inquiry, ranging in important directions.”  * Journal of the History of Biology *“Starved for Light is a sweeping history of the connection between vitamin D deficiency and rickets. Warren demonstrates how governments, medical officials, the afflicted, and their loved ones have strived to understand, combat, and conquer vitamin D deficiency and rickets. … The text is full of interesting and compelling stories, offering excellent insights into the cultural significance of rickets while expertly detailing the many challenges of curing the disease… . Highly recommended.”  * Choice *“This is a fascinating, well-researched, and lively account of the long history of rickets. This wide-ranging volume explores the emergence of modern medicine, theories of race and disease, public health, and ethics, literally lighting the way to a greater understanding of this medical condition. You won’t want to swallow cod liver oil after reading this book, but you might want to reach for a sunshine vitamin D beer—alas, no longer available.” – Janet Golden, author of Babies Made Us Modern: How Infants Brought America into the Twentieth Century“Starved for Light offers a fresh perspective on a complex and understudied aspect of the American past. Warren convincingly demonstrates how industrialization, urbanization, and commercialization contributed to sun and vitamin D deficiency, leading to a long history of disablement that still harms many marginalized populations to this day.”  – Beth Linker, author of Slouch: Posture Panic in Modern America“Starved for Light is a treasure trove of fascinating facts—from the origin of red-ochre paints on houses in Newfoundland fishing villages to the etymology of rickets—masterfully woven into a compelling narrative that shines a light on the history of rickets. Warren’s book shows that rickets is a socially constructed disease, driven not by skin color or race but by racism and a fixation of technological solutions. In the end, Warren argues, closer contact with the natural world—with sunlight—may be healthier than having a biomedical cure that keeps us living in the shadows.” – Bruce Lanphear, Simon Fraser University“Readers may think that they know the history of rickets. In Warren’s telling, we learn so much more than a simple story of scientific discovery, as fascinating as that might be. Research ethics, the growth of obstetrics, the invention of devices and surgeries, and the public health choices that led to commercial products reducing but not eliminating rickets all feature in a book that’s truly fun to read. Like the best works in the history of medicine, Starved for Light reveals lessons in public policy in a way that will please and inform historians, clinicians, and public health experts.” – Jeffrey P. Brosco, Health Resources and Services Administration

Christian Warren is professor of history at Brooklyn College. He is the author of Brush with Death: A Social History of Lead Poisoning.