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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.
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
Hygiene, Public opinion, Germ theory of disease, History, Bacteria, Science, popular works, DiseasePlaces
United StatesTimes
20th century, 19th centuryEdition | Availability |
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1
The Gospel of Germs: Men, Women, and the Microbe in American Life
September 1, 1999, Harvard University Press
Paperback
in English
0674357086 9780674357082
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2
Gospel of Germs: Men, Women, and the Microbe in American Life
January 1999, Tandem Library
School & Library Binding
in English
0613919238 9780613919234
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3
The gospel of germs: men, women, and the microbe in American life
1998, Harvard University Press
in English
0674357078 9780674357075
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Book Details
Edition Notes
Includes bibliographical references (p. 269-341) and index.
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- Created April 1, 2008
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July 13, 2024 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
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