Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce

Douglas Starr

Harper Collins, Mar 7, 2000 - Science - 496 pages

Powerfully involving narrative and incisive detail, clarity and inherent drama: Blood offers in abundance the qualities that define the best popular science writing. Here is the sweeping story of a substance that has been feared, revered, mythologized, and used in magic and medicine from earliest times--a substance that has become the center of a huge, secretive, and often dangerous worldwide commerce.

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Blood was described by judges as "a gripping page-turner, a significant contribution to the history of medicine and technology and a cautionary tale. Meticulously reported and exhaustively documented."

What people are saying

BLOOD: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce

User Review  - Kirkus

Seasoned journalist and former field biologist Starr writes an outstandingly lively history, based largely on archival research and interviews, of an unexpectedly dramatic topic: the international ...

Blood: an epic history of medicine and commerce

User Review  - Not Available - Book Verdict

Starr, codirector of the graduate program in science journalism at Boston University, energetically plunges into the social, ethical, and economic history of one of the most mysterious and culturally ...

Contents

• The Blood of a Gentle Calf: 3
• There Is No Remedy As Miraculous As Bleeding: 17
• A Strange Agglutination: 31
• BLOOD WARS: 51
• Blood on the Hoof: 53
• Prelude to a Blood Bath: 72
• War Begins: 88
• Blood Cracks like Oil: 101
• Blood at the Front: 122
• Notes: 365
• Acknowledgments: 423
• Illustrations follow pages 78 and 174: 429

About the author

Douglas Starr is an Associate Professor of Journalism and Codirector of the Graduate program in Science Journalism at Boston University. A former newspaper reporter and field biologist, he has written on the environment, medicine, and science for a variety of publications including Smithsonian, Audubon, and Sports Illustrated. Starr lives near Boston with his wife and two sons.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce
• Author: Douglas Starr
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Harper Collins, 2000
• ISBN: 0688176496, 9780688176495
• Length: 496 pages
• Subjects: Medical / General; Science / History