"This treatise makes for most informative and interesting reading, due in part to careful editing that provides a oneness of style even though each of the 11 chapters was written by a different author. This continuity reflects the objective of the work: to evaluate the changes—economic, social, political, and civil, both positive and negative—that have been brought about by the introduction and practical application of new pharmaceuticals, giving rise to “new medicine” or “modern therapeutics.” The three phases of any revolution (think industrial revolution), the past (origin, development), the present (current status), and the future (predictions), are all carefully examined. Highly recommended."

CHOICE

“The way each contributor addresses the topic of therapeutic revolution is both fresh… and compelling.”

Metascience

"Therapeutic Revolutions makes a valuable contribution to the history of twentieth-century medicine. The geographic breadth of the analysis complicates and provides texture to our understanding of the medical, political, and cultural changes wrought by the introduction of new pharmaceuticals in the mid-twentieth century. The book’s engaging and clear prose will make this an excellent contribution to undergraduate teaching on twentieth-century medicine."

Bulletin of the History of Medicine

"Indeed, we can learn much about physicians, patients, and societies in studies of the performances—whether clinical trials, newsworthy breakthroughs, or advertising campaigns—contrived to exhibit the curative effects of new medicines. This collection helps to show that the historiography of pharmaceuticals has already proceeded
far down that path."

Journal of Interdisciplinary History

“Provocative and compelling, this engrossing collection presses us to think hard about what is at stake in speaking about the therapeutic changes of the mid-twentieth century as a therapeutic revolution, what interests are served and cultural work performed by scripting stories of the coming of medical modernity as narratives of revolution, and how such storytelling—popular, professional, and scholarly—obscures understanding of pharmacotherapeutics, social change, and social efficacy in the past and for the future. Therapeutic Revolutions is thoroughly engaging and powerfully consequential.”

John Harley Warner, Yale University School of Medicine

“This is a wonderful, insightful, and wide-ranging collection examining how medicine changes, for whom, and how differently the promise of a therapeutic revolution has played out over the years and across the globe.”

Keith Wailoo, Princeton University