The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of CancerWinner of the Pulitzer Prize and a documentary from Ken Burns on PBS, this New York Times bestseller is “an extraordinary achievement” (The New Yorker)—a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence. Now includes an excerpt from Siddhartha Mukherjee’s new book Song of the Cell! Physician, researcher, and award-winning science writer, Siddhartha Mukherjee examines cancer with a cellular biologist’s precision, a historian’s perspective, and a biographer’s passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with—and perished from—for more than five thousand years. The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance, but also of hubris, paternalism, and misperception. Mukherjee recounts centuries of discoveries, setbacks, victories, and deaths, told through the eyes of his predecessors and peers, training their wits against an infinitely resourceful adversary that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out “war against cancer.” The book reads like a literary thriller with cancer as the protagonist. Riveting, urgent, and surprising, The Emperor of All Maladies provides a fascinating glimpse into the future of cancer treatments. It is an illuminating book that provides hope and clarity to those seeking to demystify cancer. |
Contents
Of blacke cholor without boyling Part Two An Impatient War 9 | 105 |
Will you turn me out if I cant get better? Part Four Prevention Is the Cure 191 235 | 191 |
A Distorted Version of Our Normal Selves | 335 |
The Fruits of Long Endeavors | 393 |
Atossas War | 461 |
Acknowledgments | 471 |
Glossary | 533 |
Photograph Credits | 543 |
An Interview with Siddhartha Mukherjee | 573 |
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Bibliographic information
| Title | The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer |
| Author | Siddhartha Mukherjee |
| Edition | unabridged, reprint |
| Publisher | Simon and Schuster, 2010 |
| ISBN | 1439181713, 9781439181713 |
| Length | 592 pages |
| Subjects | › History / Civilization Medical / History Social Science / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |