Product Description

In the seventeenth century, smallpox reigned as the world's worst killer. Luck, more than anything else, decided who would live and who would die. That is, until Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, an English aristocrat, moved to Constantinople and noticed the Turkish practice of "ingrafting" or inoculation, which, she wrote, made "the small- pox...entirely harmless." Convinced by what she witnessed, she allowed her six-year-old son to be ingrafted, and the treatment was a complete success--the young Montagu enjoyed lifelong immunity from smallpox. Lady Montagu's discovery would, however, remain a quiet one; it would be almost 150 years before inoculation (in the more modern form of vaccination) would become widely accepted while the medical community struggled to understand the way our bodies defend themselves against disease.
William Clark's At War Within takes us on a fascinating tour through the immune system, examining the history of its discovery, the ways in which it protects us, and how it may bring its full force to bear at the wrong time or in the wrong place. Scientists have only gradually come to realize that this elegant defense system not only has the potential to help, as in the case of smallpox, but also the potential to do profound harm in health problems ranging from allergies to AIDS, and from organ transplants to cancer. Dr. Clark discusses the myriad of medical problems involving the immune system, and he systematically explains each one. For example, in both tuberculosis and AIDS, the underlying pathogens take up residence within the immune system itself, something Clark compares to having a prowler take up residence in your house, crawling around through the walls and ceilings while waiting to do you in. He discusses organ transplants, showing how the immune system can work far too well, and touching on the heated ethical debate over the use of both primate and human organs. He explores the mind's powerful ability to influence the performance of the immune system; and the speculation that women, because they have developed more powerful immune systems in connection with childbearing, are more prone than men to contract certain diseases such as lupus. In a fascinating chapter on AIDS, arguably the most deadly epidemic seen on Earth since the smallpox, Clark explains how the disease originated and the ways in which it operates. And, in each section, we learn about the most recent medical breakthroughs.
At first glance, it may appear that our immune system faces daunting odds; it must learn to successfully fend off, not thousands, but millions of different types of microbes. Fortunately, according to Clark, it would be almost impossible to imagine a more elegant strategy for our protection than the one chosen by our immune system, and his At War Within provides a thorough and engaging explanation of this most complex and delicately balanced mechanism.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #780930 in Books
• Published on: 1997-05-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From Library Journal
Today the news informs us that our collective health is under attack. Tuberculosis is on the resurgence, AIDS continues its onslaught, and allergies plague many people. Clark, who teaches immunology at UCLA, unites these subjects and others in a lucid discussion of our body's immune system. Devoting each chapter to a unique malady or condition, he provides the details needed to understand our immune structure, particularly when it unravels and turns on itself. These details do not overwhelm the general reader's grasp of the topic; instead they support it. Clark's presentation is straightforward, arranged well, and includes historical background. Highly recommended for all collections.?Michael David Cramer, Virginia Polytechnic Inst. & State Univ. Libs., Blacksburg
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The immune system is a lifesaver, but it can overkill--that is, attack its possessor's friends as well as its enemies. Clark explains this highly technical subject clearly; nevertheless, readers will have to actively cogitate as they read. The brain and the immune system are the only parts of the body that have memory, and the immune system's can become confused if the signals it receives are unclear or if it misinterprets them. In such situations, autoimmune diseases occur, also the assaults on the body related to AIDS as well as to other infections. The immune system is basically bipartite, consisting of B cells and antibodies on the one hand, of T cells and lymphokines on the other; as knowledge of these two systems has grown, theories about them have changed accordingly. Although microbial pathogens can mutate incredibly quickly, immunologic diversity enables speedy response to virtually any form of attacker. Clark sees communication between the brain and the immune system as the most fascinating aspect of the complex, vitally important part of our being that the immune system is. William Beatty

Review

"Clark's historical background and clear explanations of...microscopic processes offer the kind of primer that lay readers will find valuable."--Business Week
"Explain[s] the rudiments of the immune system and the terrible consequences that can occur when the immune system is absent, as with AIDS, or when it is misguided, as with autoimmune diseases like lupus.... And there is a tantalizing section on the new discipline of psychoneuroimmunology--the relation of the mind to the immune system."--Anna Fels, The New York Times Book Review

Customer Reviews

Disappointing
Clark's "Sex & The Origins Of Death" is one of the most remarkable books ever written, cover-to-cover an exhilarating revelation. So with great anticipation for "War Within" it was a sad surprise to find it become a bedtime sedative. Clark's masterly command of vivid painting with words disappears almost entirely after chapter two and appears only sparsely before that. Of course it is not without several gems: "Like an army lashing out blindly against an unseen and unmeasured enemy, the immune system is capable of using excessive deadly force in the wrong place and time..." And this is the core subject of Clark's book, how our marvelous life-saving immune system can turn on us with deadly effect. (If there were an intelligent designer, this fact scarcely says anything positive for the designer's intelligence.) Reminding us of chronic human foolishness we find there was resistance to immunization because disease was one of God's means for punishment of the wicked - applying equally to autoimmune disease in infants whose transgression would be...? The bizarre ability of T-cells to command other cells to commit suicide is touched upon, but a more in-depth coverage of this fascinating "programmed cell death" awaits his text noted above - which was written 3 years later, so Clark improves immensely in short order. Incidentally, Clark notes that each human consumes about 30 tons of food in a lifetime (in his section on food allergies). Given almost 7 billion humans that's over 200 billion tons of food consumed by humans every 70 years or so - no wonder we're eating species into extinction. Mostly a rather dry history of immunology, perhaps it's of greater interest to the practitioner than the general reader.

Should have read this one a long time ago!
This was one of those books I purchased quite a while ago when I was in an HIV lab and I put it aside, and never quite got around to reading it. In the midst of a summer heatwave where I didn't want to go out to the library, and was browsing for something I hadn't read, I got back to this book. And...what a book it is!!! Immunology can be one of the most mind-boggling difficult things to understand, yet Clark, who is obviously at the forefront of this area of medicine, really knows how to make this information accessible to even the least scientifically-minded laymen.

I actually pick up the book and was looking at something specific in the middle of the book. I couldn't put it down again til I read the rest of the book and then went back and read the first part of the book. It still made sense, and that's not easy to do coming into a science like this. This book should be required reading for all those in immunology or any of the side fields that end up using antibodies in their work, like we did to determine what type of growth factors were being churned out by the introduction of HIV to nerve and astrocytes. It makes the work much more understandable and interesting to those doing the technical work. It would be great if they could get Clark to update the book if he is around, with what new information has been discovered over the last few years in this field.

This is also a must-read for anyone interested for self or family members undergoing autoimmune problems, as it explains why the body would turn around and attack itself. Since so many diseases are being determined to have an autoimmune part (as well as a trigger from a virus or bacteria) this becomes essential reading.

Earl Dennis' review of this book is also a must-read, as I agree with everything he says and he says it so humorously!

Karen SAdler

Our Immune System: A Mixed Blessing.
Clark's description of the war being waged within all of us demarcates the front lines: where our immune system (however functional or dysfunctional it may be) must constantly react to foreign microorganisms and our own cells. Not only does Clark discuss congenital immune diseases that leave some of us in various states of vulnerability, he also goes into detail about allergies, asthma, TB, viral hepatitis B, and other diseases in which the immune system wreaks havoc in the body, causing more damage than the intruding antigens.

Prior to his description of the war within, he provides a brief history of vaccination and an overview of the immune system's anatomy. The second half of the book contains chapters on the devastation of AIDS, the ethical dilemmas surrounding immunosuppresants and organ transplantation, and an insightful description of the electrochemical dialogue between the brain and immune system. The final chapter of the book explains how immunological thought developed during the 20th century, culminating in Burnet's clonal selection theory - which explains how we can protect ourselves (usually) against a seemingly infinite universe of pathogens without destroying our own bodies (usually). Great read, great book!