FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"Jackson has provided a rich example of how allergy has undergone shifted meanings—scientific and social—as well as illustrating Western health care practices of the last century."
Journal of the American Medical Association

"Highly recommended."
Library Journal

ALLERGY

The History of a Modern Malady

Mark Jackson

Published by Reaktion Books
Distributed by the University of Chicago Press

The sight of blooming flowers and lush green fields fills some people with dread. Cuddly kittens and puppies cause others to cry instead of smile. And a bumblebee will send many running for the nearest building. Why? It's all due to one of the most subtle yet widespread medical afflictions of our times: the allergy.

In this engaging and groundbreaking social history, Mark Jackson unearths the rich and wide-ranging roots of this "modern malady." Until the early twentieth century, the allergy didn't even exist. And even when it was first diagnosed in the early 1900s, the allergy was merely considered a rare affliction of the affluent and it subsisted as a scorned subfield of immunological research. Yet with advances in medical research and the rapidly increasing number of diagnoses, doctors quickly realized that the allergy knew no bounds of race or class.

Allergy traces in fascinating detail the subsequent social impact of the allergy. By the mid-twentieth century, a whole new health-conscious culture emerged, particularly in America and Britain; from "hay fever resorts" to high-profile medical research to the mountain of drugs and "hypoallergenic" products created by the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetics industries, allergy was defined as the number one enemy.

Jackson incisively notes these industries' skillfulness in exploiting the allergy, and he explores how some of the largest companies in the world today—from Bayer to Nestlé—trace the roots of their success to fighting allergens. The volume also chronicles the links between the allergy and modern ecological movements, as deep concerns emerged about the environment, technology, and their potential role in the prevalence of allergies.

Whether your sidekick is an asthma inhaler or you take a pill to ward off incessant sneezing and wheezing, Allergy is richly informative and fascinating account of the malady that plagues us all.

Mark Jackson is professor of the History of Medicine and director of the Centre for Medical History at the University of Exeter. He is the author of many books, including New-Born Child Murder and The Borderland of Imbecility.