The Medical Messiahs : A Social History of Health Quackery in 20th Century America / James Harvey Young.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Young, James Harvey, Author.

Series:

Princeton Legacy Library

Princeton Legacy Library ; 1799

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Quackery--history--United States.

Quackery.

Quacks and quackery--United States.

Quacks and quackery.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (520 p.)

Edition:

Expanded pbk. ed.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2015]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

James Harvey Young describes the development of patent medicines in America from the enactment in 1906 of the Pure Food and Drugs Act through the mid-1960s. Many predicted that the Pure Food and Drugs Act would be the end of harmful nostrums, but Young describes in colorful detail post-Act cases involving manufacturers and promoters of such products as Cuforhedake Brane-Fude, B. & M. "tuberculosis-curing" liniment, and the dangerous reducing pill Marmola. We meet, among others, the brothers Charles Frederick and Peter Kaadt, who treated diabetic patients with a mixture of vinegar and saltpeter; Louisiana state senator Dudley J. LeBlanc, who put on fabulous medicine shows as late as the 1950s promoting Hadacol and his own political career, and Adolphus Hohensee, whose lectures on nutrition provide a classic example of the continuing appeal of food faddism.Review:"The Medical Messiahs is an example of historical writing at its best-scholarly, perceptive, and exceedingly readable. Despite his objectivity, Young's dry humor shines through and illuminates his entire book."-John Duffy, Journal of Southern History"This book is written in tight, graceful prose that reflects thought rather than substitutes for it. Done with a sure feel for the larger political, social, and economic background, it demonstrates that historians who would make socially relevant contributions need only adhere to the best canons of their art."-Oscar E. Anderson, Jr., The American Historical Review"[This] material is so interestingly presented that the readers may not immediately appreciate what a major historic study [the book] is, and how carefully documented and critically analyzed."-Lester S. King, Journal of the American Medical Association"Dr. Young's well-written social history of health quackery in twentieth-century America will not only increase the understanding of our times by future historians but will also be of great value to all those interested in improving the health of the population by reminding them of the past."-F. M. Berger, The American ScientistOriginally published in 1967.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

1. Brane-Fude

2. The Lawless Centuries

3. A Decade of Enforcement

4. Fraud in the Mails

5. B.&M.

6. "Truth in Advertising"

7. The New Muckrakers

8. The New Deal and the New Laws

9. In Pursuit of the Diminishing Promise

10. Two Gentlemen from Indiana

11. The Gadget Boom

12. The Chemotherapeutic Revolution

13. Mail-Order "Health"

14. Proprietary Advertising and the Wheeler-Lea Act The triumphs and failures of the Federal Trade Commission in aiming its 1938 law against abuses in the advertising of self-medication wares

15. Medicine Show Impresario

16. "You Are What You Eat"

17. "The Most Heartless"

18. Anti-Quackery, Inc.

19. Turmoil on the Drug Scene

20. The Perennial Proneness

Afterword

A Note on the Sources

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 21. Dez 2019)

ISBN:

0-691-64531-0

1-4008-6869-6

OCLC:

903442321