Synopses & Reviews
Few diseases are more gruesome than typhus. Transmitted by body lice, it afflicts the dispossessed--refugees, soldiers, and ghettoized peoples--causing hallucinations, terrible headaches, boiling fever, and often death. The disease plagued the German army on the Eastern Front and left the Reich desperate for a vaccine. For this they turned to the brilliant and eccentric Polish zoologist Rudolf Weigl.
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"It is the story of [producing an effective typhus vaccine] that Allen tells--and tells very well." Washington Post
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"Astonishing." Politico
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"An extraordinary story of medical research amid horror. . . . Unforgettable." George Makari, author of Revolution in Mind: The Creation of Psychoanalysis
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"A combination of , and . I couldn't put it down." Paul A. Offit, M.D.
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"With masterful attention to detail, Arthur Allen has assembled a story of tragedy, courage, and scientific creativity. A fantastic laboratory, and a fantastic book." Nathan Guttman, Washington bureau chief, The Forward
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"An outstanding history." Dr. Walter Orenstein, former director, National Immunization Program, CDC
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"Allen is unflinching in his retelling of this monstrous era, but he manages to avoid writing a depressing narrative. Instead, Weigl, Fleck and their vaccines illuminate the inherent social complexities of science and truth and reinforce the overriding good of man. An unforgettable book." Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
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"Fascinating." Tilli Tansey
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"Wholly surprising and affecting." Nature
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"Allen's vivid depictions of the scientific community before and during the war and the treacherous parallel paths Weigl and Fleck traversed--gleaned in part from interviews with Holocaust survivors--are stirring. Considering all the energy channeled into mere survival, Allen's book makes you wonder what pinnacles of research might have been achieved by now, if not for the march of war." Jonathan Kirsch Jewish Journal
Synopsis
"Thought-provoking. . . . [Allen] writes without sanctimony and never simplifies the people in his book or the moral issues his story inevitably raises."--
About the Author
Arthur Allen has written for the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, the Associated Press, Science, and Slate. His books include Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver. He lives in Washington, where he writes about health for Politico.