The Secret History of the War on Cancer - Softcover

Davis, Devra

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0465015689 ISBN 13: 9780465015689

Publisher: Basic Books, 2009

Synopsis

Why has the War on Cancer" languished, focusing mainly on finding and treating the disease and downplaying the need to control and combat cancer's basic causes,tobacco, the workplace, radiation, and the general environment? This war has targeted the wrong enemies with the wrong weapons, failing to address well-known cancer causes. As epidemiologist Devra Davis shows in this superbly researched exposé, this is no accident. The War on Cancer has followed the commercial interests of industries that generated a host of cancer-causing materials and products. This is the gripping story of a major public health effort diverted and distorted for private gain that is being reclaimed through efforts to green health care and the environment.

About this title

Review:

The Times (Higher Education Supplement)
"The Secret History of the War on Cancer reflects the complex interaction of science, politics and society in the 20th century. I am left wondering how it will change in the 21st."

Toronto Globe & Mail
"Easily the most important science book of the year.... Each and every chapter in this book offers an uncomfortable revelation."

Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Davis is excellent at following the money and fearless about naming names.... With this work, Devra Davis has permanently reframed the 'war.' It should be required reading for those with cancer histories in their families. In other words, just about all of us."

Cleveland Plain Dealer / Best 20 Books of 2007
"This searing book from a University of Pittsburgh epidemiologist lays out 35 years of medical greed and cowardice that left millions of Americans vulnerable to environmental and occupational cancer deaths. Countless political books attempt to influence the electorate, but this one stands out from the pack, demonstrating why money changes everything."

Washington Post
"Davis put it together in a way that illuminates the underbelly of medical research."

O magazine
"In her devastating, 20-years-in-the-making expose...Devra Davis... shows how cancer researchers, bankrolled by petrochemical and pharmaceutical companies, among others, collude in 'the science of doubt promotion.'...Davis diagnoses two of the most lethal diseases of modern society: secrecy and self-interest. This book is a dramatic plea for a cure."

Discover
"Davis's new book, The Secret History of the War on Cancer, is a wake-up call for all those who have accepted the poisons of our age of plenty without a blink."

Lancet Oncology
"A feisty and highly accessible writer, Davis lays her cards on the table...a rattling good read and raises vital issues that remain relevant today."

Booklist starred review
&ldquoSeveral big ACS [American Cancer Society] contributors, are heavily invested in keeping the public from becoming fully informed of the risks of myriad chemicals to which we and our children are exposed.... Money, it seems, trumps all. Treatment and cures are hefty profit generators, and it's expensive to change or eliminate the use of potentially toxic chemicals.... Kudos to Davis for stepping up to the plate."

Synopsis:

From the acclaimed author of "When Smoke Ran Like Water", is a searing and revelatory account of how the War on Cancer has been distorted by economic interests. Even before its official launch more than three decades ago, the War on Cancer was fighting many of the wrong battles, with the wrong weapons and the wrong leaders. Little has changed since. Conceived in explicitly military terms, the campaign against cancer has always been about defeating an existing enemy - detecting, treating and curing the disease. The campaign has hardly addressed the basic causes of the disease such as tobacco, the workplace of the general environment; proof that the world in which we live and work has a lot to do with whether we get cancer was either overlooked or suppressed, often by people who had a major economic interest in making this happen.This has been no accident. The War on Cancer has been directed, from the beginning, by leaders who came from industries that generated a host of cancer-causing materials and products, or who controlled firms that profited directly from cancer treatment. Their economic interests lay in making the disease less deadly, but never in preventing its occurrence."

The Secret History of the War on Cancer" shows, decade by decade, how this leadership acted to prevent research on prevention from ever being done - or, once done, from ever gaining widespread circulation or affecting either medical practice or government policy. Filled with compelling personalities and never-before-revealed information, this is the story of a major public health effort diverted and distorted for private gain.

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0465015689
• ISBN 13: 9780465015689
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 552