Review
These fascinating, well-written stories portray what it is like to work in human or medical genetics, both in the clinic and as a researcher.
(Uta Francke
Nature 2006)
As difficult as it is to pinpoint the key events in history, Lindee manages this well, singling out and humanising the most important events and players.
(Lindsay Banham
Lancet 2006)
This history will reward anyone interested in the paths from gene discoveries to cures or the potential for genomic medicine.
(
Science 2006)
Captures the complexities of research on genetic disease while prompting us to reconsider the distribution of scientific authority and the dynamics of knowledge production.
(Michael R. Dietrich
New England Journal of Medicine 2006)
An elegant, accessible, even thrilling book that is itself a moment of historical truth and a must-read.
(Alice Wexler
Bulletin of the History of Medicine 2006)
An important contribution to our understanding of the making of the future of medicine, not just substantively, but methodologically as well.
(Paolo Palladino
Journal of History of Biology 2006)
Provocative and thoughtful... An important and interesting exploration of post–World War II genetics and its impact on the current revolution in genetics and biology.
(Michael Yudell
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 2006)
Lindee argues that the production of scientific knowledge is a community project involving not just researchers, but also research subjects, patients and their families... The resulting insight into the structure and organization of contemporary biomedicine is one of the chief contributions of this original and important new book.
(Diane Paul
Medical History 2007)
Moments of Truth in Genetic Medicine opens up an important area of contemporary biomedicine, the 'genetization' of disease, to historical scrutiny, looking for decisive turning points far beyond the narrow confines of molecular genetics. Written in a highly accessible style, it will be of interest to anyone concerned with the making of biomedical knowledge, genetic and otherwise.
(Soraya de Chadarevian
Isis 2007)
A fascinating and thorough job of summarizing the emergence of human genetics from an almost totally ignored discipline to its current position as one of the most high-profile biomedical and societal endeavors.
(Ronald G. Davidson
American Journal of Medical Genetics Part A 2006)
Thoughtful book... Raises novel issues about the rise of genetic knowledge and formulates questions and strategies that are critical to understanding both the past and future of genetic medicine.
(Stephen Pemberton
History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 2006)
A highly readable, fascinating analysis of a trend in medicine whose velocity is dizzyingly rapid. Beautifully written and full of creative insight into the research and discovery process. A great story.
(Rayna Rapp, New York University 2009)
An invaluable history of the late twentieth century's new medical genetics. With a historian's sense of perspective and a sociologist's sense of discipline and structure, Lindee has written what will become an indispensable introduction to an increasingly central aspect of contemporary medicine—and society.
(Charles E. Rosenberg, Harvard University )
A 'must' for any health library concerned with health history, particularly at the college level.
(
Midwest Book Review )
From the Back Cover
Susan Lindee's original study explores the institutions, disciplines, and ideas that initiated the reconfiguration of genetic medicine from a marginal field in the mid-1950s to a core research frontier of biomedicine. Tracing the work of geneticists and other experts in identifying and classifying disease during the explosive period between 1950 and 1980, Lindee identifies the individual "moments of truth" that moved the field away from its eugenic past to the center of a new world view in which nearly all disease is understood to be fundamentally genetic.
"These fascinating, well-written stories portray what it is like to work in human or medical genetics, both in the clinic and as a researcher."— Nature
"As difficult as it is to pinpoint the key events in history, Lindee manages this well, singling out and humanising the most important events and players."— Lancet
"This history will reward anyone interested in the paths from gene discoveries to cures or the potential for genomic medicine."— Science
"Captures the complexities of research on genetic disease while prompting us to reconsider the distribution of scientific authority and the dynamics of knowledge production."— New England Journal of Medicine
"An elegant, accessible, even thrilling book that is itself a moment of historical truth and a must-read."— Bulletin of the History of Medicine
" Moments of Truth in Genetic Medicine opens up an important area of contemporary biomedicine, the 'genetization' of disease, to historical scrutiny, looking for decisive turning points far beyond the narrow confines of molecular genetics. Written in a highly accessible style, it will be of interest to anyone concerned with the making of biomedical knowledge, genetic and otherwise."— Isis
Susan Lindee is a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania.
