The gospel of germs : men, women, and the microbe in American life
Little more than a hundred years ago, ordinary Americans had no idea that many deadly ailments were the work of microorganisms, let alone that their own behavior spread such diseases. The Gospel of Germs shows how the revolutionary findings of late-nineteenth-century bacteriology made their way from the laboratory to the lavatory and kitchen, with public health reformers spreading the word and women taking up the battle on the domestic front. Drawing on a wealth of advice books, patent applications, advertisements, and oral histories, Tomes traces the new awareness of the microbe as it radiated outward from middle-class homes into the world of American business and crossed the lines of class, gender, ethnicity, and race. Just as we take some of the weapons in this germ war for granted - fixtures as familiar as the white porcelain toilet, the window screen, the refrigerator, and the vacuum cleaner - so we rarely think of the drastic measures deployed against disease in the dangerous old days before antibiotics. But, as Tomes notes, many of the hygiene rules first popularized in those days remain the foundation of infectious disease control today. Her work offers a look into the history of our long-standing obsession with germs, its impact on twentieth-century culture and society, and its troubling new relevance for our own lives
Print Book, English, 1998
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1998
History
xv, 351 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780674357075, 9780674357082, 0674357078, 0674357086
37331627
Preface: Memories of Disease Past Introduction: The Gospel of Germs Part I: The Gospel Emergent, 1870-1890 Apostles of the Germ Whited Sepulchers Entrepreneurs of the Germ Part II: The Gospel Triumphant, 1890-1920 Disciples of the Laboratory Tuberculosis Religion The Domestication of the Germ Part III: The Gospel in Practice, 1900-1930 Antisepticonscious America The Wages of Dirt Were Death The Two-Edged Sword Part IV: The Gospel in Retreat The Waning of Enthusiasm Epilogue: The Gospel of Germs in the Age of AIDS Notes Acknowledgments Index
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