Under the Radar: Cancer and the Cold War

by Ellen Leopold

Overview

In Under the Radar, Ellen Leopold shows how nearly every aspect of our understanding and discussion of cancer bears the imprint of its Cold War entanglement. The current biases toward individual rather than corporate responsibility for rising incidence rates, research that promotes treatment rather than prevention, and therapies that can be patented and marketed all reflect a largely hidden history shaped by the Cold War. Even the language we use to describe the disease, such as the guiding metaphor for treatment, "fight fire with fire," can be traced back to the middle of the twentieth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813545653
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	09/03/2008
Series:	Critical Issues in Health and Medicine
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	312
File size:	813 KB

About the Author

Ellen Leopold is the author of A Darker Ribbon: Breast Cancer, Women, and Their Doctors in the Twentieth Century, and coauthor of The World of Consumption. She has written on the subject of the politics of health care for The Nation, American Prospect, Women's Review of Books and the Chicago Tribune.

Table of Contents

Double jeopardy: cancer and the "cure"
The court considers informed consent
The rise of radioactive cobalt
The back story: "a little of the Buchenwald touch"
Behind the fallout controversy: the public, the press, and conflicts of interest
Cancer and fallout: science by circumvention
Paradise lost: radiation enters the mainstream
Subdued by the system: cancer in the courts, compensation, and the changing concept of risk
The hidden assassin: the individual at fault
Experiments by other means: clinical trials and the primacy of treatment over prevention

Editorial Reviews

"...[a] well documented, informative expose of the relationship between Cold War politics and cancer research and treatment."

The Source: Breast Cancer Action Newsletter

"Leopold does for our understanding of radiation what Rachel Carson did for our understanding of the indiscriminate use of chemicals in our society. The consequences are equally stunning and disheartening. This book will change how you see the medical world."

executive director, Breast Cancer Action - Barbara A. Brenner

"Opens up a promising new era for postwar history of medical research policy, clinical experimentation, and bioethics."

Bulletin of the History of Medicine

"Ellen Leopold's penetrating, many-layered account of how Cold War metaphors and priorities distorted the treatment of cancer is a bloodcurdling study in fear, cynicism, exploitation, and relentless propaganda. Her exposure of the conflation of political and economic ideology with medicine is thoroughly original and genuinely gripping."

Academic Matters - Katherine Powers

"Under the Radar: Cancer and the Cold War is a very well researched and presented documentation of the expansion of the Military-Industrial-Complex to include (perhaps unknowingly) the medical profession. It should be an eye-opener for the warriors, entrepreneurs, governors, and medical professionals—who are also the consumers of 'medicine' in this 21st century America."

Member of the International Science Oversight Board - Dr. Rosalie Bertell

"This highly readable book, thoroughly contextualized in the era of the cold war, covers key material in understanding the scientific and military roles in the evolution of radiation therapy since mid century. This book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of radiation, cancer radiation therapies of mid-twentieth century, and medicine at the height of its paternalistic power."

Nursing History Review

"...[a] well documented, informative expose of the relationship between Cold War politics and cancer research and treatment."

The Source: Breast Cancer Action Newsletter

"Under the Radar is well researched, provocative, and highly readable. This is a thoughtful work that deserves wide readership."

Policy and Law Journal of Health Politics

"A wide-ranging and compelling analysis of the sometimes murky political, economic, and cultural forces behind [Irma Natanson's fate—and our own. Under the Radar provides insight and provides a timely reminder and warning to us all about the cancerous environment in which we live."

Journal of the History of Medicine

"Under the Radar is a brilliantly researched, lucidly written book on a subject that is literally the life-and-death issue for twenty-first century America: Cancer treatment."

author of The Big Picture: The New Logic of Money and Power in Hollywood - Edward Jay Epstein

"Compelling prose renders Under the Radar a readable exploration of the connections between Cold War thinking, politics and institutions, and American medicine's efforts to manage cancer. This breadth of focus makes for a thought provoking book."

Times Higher Education