The Antibiotic Era

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

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.