Product Description

Powerfully involving narrative and incisive detail, clarity and inherent drama: Blood offers in abundance the qualities that define the best popular science writing. Here is the sweeping story of a substance that has been feared, revered, mythologized, and used in magic and medicine from earliest times--a substance that has become the center of a huge, secretive, and often dangerous worldwide commerce.

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Blood was described by judges as "a gripping page-turner, a significant contribution to the history of medicine and technology and a cautionary tale. Meticulously reported and exhaustively documented."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #413044 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-01
• Released on: 2000-03-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780688176495
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

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.

From Library Journal
Starr, codirector of the graduate program in science journalism at Boston University, energetically plunges into the social, ethical, and economic history of one of the most mysterious and culturally pertinent resources in human history: our very blood. He starts with the first blood transfusion, from a calf to a man, in 1667 Paris and runs through the changing mythological landscape, medical advances, and the political (and certainly military) power associated with possessing a rich blood supply. He closes with a discussion of contemporary issues, such as the threat posed by regarding blood as a commodity. This is science writing at its best: well researched, socially relevant, and highly enjoyable.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

epic yet concise
Although I defer to Mr.Haschka's expertise in the field of blood, I must take issue with his snippy comment about Mr.Starr's affinity for bad news. I found Blood to be well-balanced-- he labors mightily to present good news and noble accomplishments alongside the tales of negligence, ignorance, and good old-fashioned greed. Yes, he does report on the tainted blood in great depth but let's face it-- mistakes advance science as much as, or even more than, successes, and should be accorded the appropriate amount of space. As far as repetition is concerned, I admit that I haven't read Mr.Shilts' tome, but Blood is perfect for those of us who are interested in the HIV crisis in the larger context of the industry as a whole, and in light of earlier discoveries. The book lost me a bit in its lengthy discussion of the business complex, but the information is important in order to understand how the impact of new discoveries (and mistakes) are felt worldwide. The history of blood is nothing less than riveting, how mysticism and individual hubris has given way to science-- and how they have simultaneously coexisted and been at loggerheads ever since. A formidable subject, nicely covered in a single volume.

An Admirable, Informative Review of A Vital Industry
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.

In any case, Starr has clearly done a mountain of research. I would highly recommend this book to anyone outside of the blood industry who wishes to understand the broad mechanics of collecting, preserving and distributing blood and blood products. I would also recommend it to a person such as myself, immersed in the day-to-day technology of getting blood to the patient, who has never been exposed to the history of the art. Personally, I don't view the book as a "thriller", though it has been so described by other reviewers. It's a solid, informative description of an industry in constant change. Some might say turmoil. As an example of the latter (not mentioned by Starr), many agencies concerned with the blood supply are adopting a stance promoting "universal leukoreduction", i.e. the practice of depleting cellular blood products (both Red Blood Cells and Platelets) of white cells, or leukocytes. Contaminating leukocytes are known to cause immune suppression, CMV virus transmission, and refractoriness to platelet transfusions. This universal leukoreduction is being promoted by national professional and regulatory agencies (which got burned by the AIDS scandal) for political reasons, by the blood filter vendors for obviously commercial reasons, and more or less by practicing physicians in the field. There is the counter view that universal leukoreduction will cost the patient-consumer, or his insurance company, too much, especially since it's not been proven that all patient populations requiring transfusion need leukoreduced blood. Thus the current brouhaha, yet to be resolved to everyone's satisfaction. Maybe Starr can write a second epilog.

Cookies, juice and money
This book makes the history of medicine, especially blood, interesting, and accessible to anyone. It also exposes the blood industry, GOOD and BAD, with names and dates of the people who moved it along: the medics in World Wars who risked their lives, the brilliant and tempermental researchers, and the greedy. Starr gives you well-documented facts and lets the reader decide, as a good writer should, who is the bad guy. This book doesn't tug as much at your heartstrings as Bad Blood: Crisis in the American Red Cross by Judith Reitman, but that's by far an advantage. She would have you believe that just because people died (of AIDS, and Hepatitis), there must be someone in the blood industry at fault. There certainly is some fault to go around, but this book helps you decide who and why there is fault, and tells both sides of the story without leaving Reitman's huge empty gaps in the evidence.