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(13 reviews)
Author: Visit Amazon's Douglas Starr Page
ISBN : 067941875X
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Amazon.com Review
Don't faint! Blood may be a highly charged substance, symbolic of our spirit and essential for life, but we can gain much from reflecting on its power over us. Science journalist Douglas Starr has examined the history of blood's medical uses, and his report is at once intellectually engaging and emotionally compelling.
Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce covers the late 17th century to the present, detailing experiments with animal blood (one violent madman was briefly calmed by infused calf's blood), the long ban on transfusions, direct artery-to-vein suture between donor and recipient, and today's global blood-banking industry. It's a great story that shows the long climb from great risk and heroism to relative safety.
Our greatest stumble during this climb--the AIDS crisis of the 1980s--is the meat of the book. How could it have happened? Why were so many people given contaminated blood products after clear warnings about the risks of infection? Starr is unafraid to name names and lay bare the political and financial decisions that condemned so many thousands of hemophiliacs and surgical patients to early deaths. Those who don't learn from the past are bound to repeat it; Starr aims to help us keep the blood off of our hands. --Rob Lightner
From Publishers Weekly
The codirector of Boston University's graduate program in science journalism shows how it's done in this exemplary study of the role that blood has played in human affairs. Although Starr begins the story centuries ago, he concentrates on modern times. Throughout his coverage, information about advances in biology and physiology is introduced as needed, often enabling the reader to share in the excitement of scientific discovery. But this book is about much more than just biology. The politics of blood play a central role, from our race with the Germans during the Second World War to develop a system to enable battlefield transfusions to the squabbling and animosity present among the various blood collection agencies in the U.S. As Starr makes clear, as the global traffic in blood and blood products has expanded into a multibillion-dollar operation, the financial bottom line has begun to outweigh the importance of medical benefits. In riveting fashion, Starr explains how business practices enabled the AIDS virus to permeate the world's blood supply, leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths, particularly among hemophiliacs. Truly frightening are tales of the harvesting of blood and plasma from indigent and unhealthy third-world natives and the unwillingness of governments, third- and first-world alike, to take action to protect their citizens. Clear-eyed and wrought with superb attention to detail, this is first-class science writing, with a striking message. 16 pages of photos, not seen by PW.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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- Hardcover: 464 pages
- Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (September 22, 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 067941875X
- ISBN-13: 978-0679418757
- Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.8 x 1.6 inches
- Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
Free Download Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce
I've worked in the blood industry for almost 30 years, in the front trenches (hospital blood banks/transfusion services) and in the rear support areas (community blood centers, research institutions, and pharmaceutical/medical device manufacturers) in technical, sales, marketing and production management positions. For me, Starr's admirable volume works best during the first half, when the historical evolution of blood and blood product therapy from the 17th century up to the end of World War II is described. After that, it becomes repetitive of the excellent work previously authored by Randy Shilts, "And the Band Played On". The hepatitis and AIDS crises of the late 20th century have certainly revealed the various international and national elements of the blood industry to be conservative, cantankerous, shortsighted, jingoistic, sometimes lacking in social conscience, occasionally unethical, often self-serving to the point of greed, and with leaders of monumental egos. Sounds like any other human group endeavor to me. What else is new? Maybe an industry that provides wire clothes hangers might be more idealistic, but I doubt it. The bulk of the later chapters is "bad news". But then, to the author, who is a former newspaper reporter, the only news worth telling would naturally be bad news.
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