Flexible Bodies: Tracking Immunity in American Culture-from the Days of Polio to the Age of AIDS [Hardcover]

Emily Martin (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0807046264 | ISBN-13: 978-0807046265 | Publication Date: June 1994

Emily Martin traces Americans' changing ideas about health and immunity since the 1940s. She explores the implications of our emphasis on 'flexibility' in contexts from medicine to the corporate world, warning that we may be approaching a new form of social Darwinism.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The traditional image of the immune system as an army defending the body against foreign invaders is gradually being supplanted, asserts Martin, who teaches anthropology at Johns Hopkins. She sees a new model of immunity emerging among conventional scientists, holistic practitioners and the public, according to which the immune system is thought of as a "field" whose dysfunctions contribute to allergies, cancer, heart disease and AIDS. But a corollary of this emergent view of the body as a complex, constantly changing system, she maintains, is the notion that some people are more "flexible" than others who are less adaptable. "Flexibility" is coming to be valued more highly than the individual, in Martin's analysis, and this underlies a disturbing new Social Darwinism. For this wide-ranging, sometimes provocative study, Martin interviewed members of a polio survivors' support group, joined ACT UP demonstrations, was a participant-observer in an immunology research lab and a volunteer "buddy" in a residence for the HIV-infected. Illustrations.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Basing her intriguing book on the responses of both nonscientists and scientists (who vary greatly socially, politically, and in income-levels) to a survey concerned with knowledge of the immune system and also on radio and TV reporting and magazine and book literature, Martin shows how views of the immune system have changed during the course of a half century. Her presentation becomes especially provocative as it turns to the current scene. For just as businesses now seek more employee flexibility so that they--the businesses--can adjust quickly to changing conditions, her respondents expect more flexibility from the human immune system. Martin points out the disturbing implications of the belief that individuals can train their immune systems like businesses train employees and that groups of persons can be ranked in society by the quality of their immune systems. Enhanced by illustrations from many sources, her effort will make an excellent focus for study and discussion groups. William Beatty

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Pr (June 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807046264
• ISBN-13: 978-0807046265
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,492,821 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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