Living in the Shadow of Death: Tuberculosis and the Social Experience of Illness in American History - Softcover

Rothman, Prof Sheila M. M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801851866 ISBN 13: 9780801851865

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995

Synopsis

Tuberculosis-once the cause of as many as one in five deaths in the U. S. -crossed all boundaries of class and gender, but the methods of treatment for men and women differed radically. While men were encouraged to go out to sea or to the open country, women were expected to stay at home, surrounded by family, to anticipate a lingering death. Several women, however, chose rather to head for the drier climates of the West and build new lives on their own. But with the discovery of the tubercle bacillus in 1882 and the establishment of sanatoriums, both men and women were relegated to lives of seclusion, sacrificing autonomy for the prospect of a cure. In Living in the Shadow of Death Sheila Rothman presents the story of tuberculosis from the perspective of those who suffered, and in doing so helps us to understand the human side of the disease-and to cope with its resurgence. The letters, diaries, and journals piece together what it was like to experience tuberculosis, and eloquently reveal the tenacity and resolve with which people faced it. "A fascinating and powerful book. . . compelling reading. Tuberculosis was a disease, now reemerging, that killed more Americans, young or old, rich or poor, than any other disease, until well into the twentieth century. It shaped our culture, determined careers, blighted lives. Rothman writes beautifully and with great sensitivity about the human condition. The book will, I believe, become a classic in the field". -David E. Rodgers, Cornell Medical College

About this title

Review:

"A 1994 Notable Book of the Year"

(New York Times Book Review)

"[A] remarkable book... Elegantly composed... It is written, and splendidly so, out of compassion for victims, respect for their courage and hope that their stories will enlighten us about current afflictions. Suffering is the books' compelling theme: not the genius of scientists but the pain and tenacity of the sick... [Rothman's] book is invested with a modestly humane hope that the past can teach us something useful... At stake is our collective civility as much as our health."

(Alan Trachtenberg New York Times Book Review)

"[A] moving account of what is was like to live in the shadow of death."

(W. F. Bynum Nature)

"This is great reading, an illness narrative that dramatically illustrates how an exceptional, atypical life can inform historical knowledge."

(Boston Sunday Globe)

"[A] graceful and lucid history."

(Mirabella)

"Remarkably relevant. [Living in the Shadow of Death] conveys a troubling sense of déjà vu in a decade when we face both the AIDS epidemic and the recrudescence of tuberculosis itself; and it is important reading for those caught up in efforts to deal both effectively and humanely with either."

(June Osborn, former chair, U.S. National Commission on AIDS)

"A fascinating and powerful book... compelling reading. Tuberculosis was a disease, now reemerging, that killed more Americans, young or old, rich or poor, than any other disease, until well into the twentieth century. It shaped our culture, determined careers, blighted lives. Rothman writes beautifully and with great sensitivity about the human condition. The book will, I believe, become a classic in the field."

(David E. Rodgers, Cornell Medical College)

"Dr Rothman has hit a home run. Sandlot Stats: Learning Statistics with Baseball is not only a fine book to read, but a text which can also serve as an excellent resource book."

(Father Gabe Costa CBC New York)

From the Back Cover:

For more than 150 years, until well into the twentieth century, tuberculosis was the dreaded scourge that AIDS is for us today. Based on the diaries and letters of hundreds of individuals over five generations, Living in the Shadow of Death is the first book to present an intimate and evocative portrait of what it was like for patients as well as families and communities to struggle against this dreaded disease. "Consumption", as it used to be called, is one of the oldest known diseases. But it wasn't until the beginning of the nineteenth century that it became pervasive and feared in the United States, the cause of one out of every five deaths. Consumption crossed all boundaries of geography and social class. How did people afflicted with the disease deal with their fate? How did their families? What did it mean for the community when consumption affected almost every family and every town? Sheila M. Rothman documents a fascinating story. Each generation had its own special view of the origins, transmission, and therapy for the disease, definitions that reflected not only medical knowledge but views on gender obligations, religious beliefs, and community responsibilities. In general, Rothman points out, tenacity and resolve, not passivity or resignation, marked people's response to illness and to their physicians. Convinced that the outdoor life was better for their health, young men with tuberculosis in the nineteenth century interrupted their college studies and careers to go to sea or to settle in the West, in the process shaping communities in Colorado, Arizona, and California. Women, anticipating the worst, raised their children to be welcomed as orphans in other people's homes.In the twentieth century, both men and women entered sanatoriums, sacrificing autonomy for the prospect of a cure. Poignant as biography, illuminating as social history, this book reminds us that ours is not the first generation to cope with the death of the young or with the stigma of disease and the proper limits of medical authority. In an era when a deadly contagious disease once again casts its shadow over individual lives and communities, Living in the Shadow of Death gives us a new sense of our own past as it equips us to comprehend the present.

About this edition

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0801851866
• ISBN 13: 9780801851865
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 332