A Contagious Cause
The American Hunt for Cancer Viruses and the Rise of Molecular Medicine
- Contents
- Review Quotes
Table of Contents
Contents
List of Acronyms
Introduction: “An Infectious Disease—A Virus”
1. Cancer and Contagion
2. Cancer as a Viral Disease
3. Policymakers and Philanthropists Define the Cancer Problem
4. The Biomedical Settlement and the Federalization of the Cancer Problem
5. Managing the Future at the Special Virus Leukemia Program
6. Administrative Objects and the Infrastructure of Cancer Virus Research
7. Viruses as a Central Front in the War on Cancer
8. Molecular Biology’s Resistance to the War on Cancer
9. The West Coast Retrovirus Rush and the Discovery of Oncogenes
10. Momentum for Molecular Medicine
Conclusion: Afterlife, Memory, and Failure in Biomedical Research
Introduction: “An Infectious Disease—A Virus”
1. Cancer and Contagion
2. Cancer as a Viral Disease
3. Policymakers and Philanthropists Define the Cancer Problem
4. The Biomedical Settlement and the Federalization of the Cancer Problem
5. Managing the Future at the Special Virus Leukemia Program
6. Administrative Objects and the Infrastructure of Cancer Virus Research
7. Viruses as a Central Front in the War on Cancer
8. Molecular Biology’s Resistance to the War on Cancer
9. The West Coast Retrovirus Rush and the Discovery of Oncogenes
10. Momentum for Molecular Medicine
Conclusion: Afterlife, Memory, and Failure in Biomedical Research
Time Line
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Review Quotes
CHOICE
"An engaging book on the development of biomedical science as looked at through the lens of a historian. . . . Recommended."
The FASEB Journal
"In a scholarly and well-documented history, [Scheffler] recounts how the fear that human cancer might be contagious and the response by public advocates, scientists, and the medical profession led to the creation of an extraordinary mechanism of taxpayer support for cancer research that persists to this day. Covering nearly a century of biomedical history, the author includes absorbing accounts of important milestones in cancer, virology, and biomedical research along with engaging profiles of the major actors. The 379-page book is rich in detail as it weaves together events and changes in politics, medicine, and biology that are usually considered in isolation. . . . [A] captivating story."
Sociology of Health & Illness
"An excellent overview of the history and politics of post-war biomedical research in the United States. . . . A Contagious Cause is an indispensable reading for all those interested in the social and political processes underpinning the recent past of state-sponsored biological research on cancer in one of the countries that has contributed the most to it."
British Society for the History of Medicine
"A Contagious Cause describes in detail the complex interplay of science, medicine and politics against the changing background of American society. The author skilfully builds his case without getting lost in the minutiae. . . . This substantial work of scholarship cogently demonstrates what the author calls the 'cycles of concern, hope, mobilization, frustration and redefinition' that characterize the modern biomedical endeavour. It is relevant to anyone interested in how scientific research played into healthcare in the 20th century and serves as an antidote to simplistic interpretations of medical advances."
Carsten Timmerman, University of Manchester
"Scheffler's history of the quest for a cancer virus is a book that had to be written. This impressively well researched monograph provides much needed context to the memoirs of cancer researchers published over the past few years. Equally convincing on both the technical and the political aspects of the story, A Contagious Cause is essential reading for anyone interested in how we got where we are in modern cancer research."
Angela N. H. Creager, Princeton University
"A Contagious Cause reconstructs the origins and consequences of a biological 'moonshot' aimed at finding human cancer viruses in the 1960s and 1970s. Although this program did not achieve its stated aim, it consolidated a distinctively American approach to public health while fueling the scientific--and ultimately economic--ascent of molecular biology. Robin Wolfe Scheffler makes a compelling case for the conjoint growth of the US administrative state and biomedical research, a partnership seemingly impervious to failure. Powerfully argued, this book is vital reading for historians of science and political historians alike."
Ilana Löwy, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, author of Tangled Diagnoses: Prenatal Testing, Women, and Risk
"A Contagious Cause: The American Hunt for Cancer Viruses and the Rise of Molecular Medicine tells the fascinating story of the search for cancer viruses in the US. This story sheds new light on the development of biomedical sciences in the US during a period in which the promise of biomedical breakthroughs was seen as an attractive alternative to a federal intervention in the medical marketplace. Cancer viruses, Scheffler persuasively argues, became objects 'good to think with,' precisely because of their multifaceted and unresolved history. A Contagious Cause displays the entanglement of biomedicine, clinical studies, and military research, reveals the role of sociotechnical imagery in shaping research policies, and provides a unique opportunity to learn how biomedicine works, especially when it faces obstacles and frustration."
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