Unnatural History: Breast Cancer and American Society (Cambridge Studies in the History of Medicine) [Hardcover]

Robert A. Aronowitz (Author)

Book Description

Series: Cambridge Studies in the History of Medicine | Publication Date: October 8, 2007

In the early nineteenth century in the United States, cancer in the breast was a rare disease. Now it seems that breast cancer is everywhere. Written by a medical historian who is also a doctor, Unnatural History tells how and why this happened. Rather than there simply being more disease, breast cancer has entered the bodies of so many American women and the concerns of nearly all the rest, mostly as a result of how we have detected, labeled, and responded to the disease. The book traces changing definitions and understandings of breast cancer, the experience of breast cancer sufferers, clinical and public health practices, and individual and societal fears.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Providing extensive research and case histories, including that of author and environmentalist Rachel Carson, Aronowitz presents his findings here to a national audience."
- Library Journal

"From the perspective of a physician who is also a trained historian and social scientist, and a gifted narrator, Robert Aronowitz has written an illuminating and moving account of what has, and has not changed in the knowledge and understanding of breast cancer, its diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, and prevention, and in its lived experience in American society over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Drawing principally on rich case studies of women with breast cancer, and the clinical records and correspondence of physicians who have been pathmakers in this field of medicine, he vividly demonstrates the entwined influence of scientific, technological, social, and cultural factors on this history. He does it in a way that not only provides first-hand insights into the attitudes and values of patients afflicted with breast cancer, their suffering and decision-making, but of their doctors and families as well."
- Renée C. Fox, PhD, Annenberg Professor Emerita of the Social Sciences, University of Pennsylvania

"A fascinating and thought-provoking study of the clinical experience of breast cancer patients and their physicians. Through an imaginative reconstruction of that experience, Aronowitz shows how culture -- in terms of values and medical ideas and practices -- has changed over the past two centuries, while shaping the perceived choices of both doctor and patient. The author wants us to think critically and circumstantially about how we evaluate risk and he succeeds admirably; this is an outstanding contribution to our understanding of medicine past and present."
- Charles Rosenberg

"Fear, risk, and the biology of disease are all critical actors in Robert Aronowitz's path breaking new assessment of breast cancer in American society, Unnatural History. He brilliantly demonstrates how the experience of disease cannot be "resected" from time, place, and culture. Patients, clinicians, and historians will greatly benefit from his insight and compassion."
- Allan M. Brandt, Kass Professor of the History of Medicine, Harvard University

"The evolution of medicine's understanding of the biology and natural history of breast cancer as well as societal attitudes toward its detection, prevention, and treatment is a fascinating story. Dr. Aronowitz's erudite and relatively unapologetic and honest account of how 'the more things change, the more they stay the same' offers a sobering testament of how this story has unfolded over the past 2 centuries. It reflects the frustration of trying to drive at night without headlights (i.e., managing breast cancer in the 1800s, without sufficient understanding of the biology of the disease), and the delicate dance between physician and patient with respect to managing this disease during a time of growing, but often conflicting data.
Both those involved in the care of breast cancer patients, and patients and their families should find the journey that Dr. Aronowitz's book takes them on to be most illuminating."
- Andrew D. Seidman, MD, Attending Physician, Breast Cancer Medicine Service Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

"Dr. Aronowitz has written a compelling and rich history, so much so that a review can barely skim the highlights. In addition, he wants us to think critically about risk evaluation. Aronowitz hopes that knowledge of this history will help clinicians and patients respond more thoughtfully to the challenges presented by the many options we have for confronting breast cancer."
- Shelf Awareness, Marilyn Dahl

"In his new book, Unnatural History, Robert Aronowitz, a clinician and historian of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania looks at how breast cancer was understood and experienced in the USA from the early 19th century to the present." -Alison Bateman-House, Lancet Oncology

"Unnatural History traces how breast cancer was transformed over the last two centuries from an object of fear, dealt with privately and in isolation, to a matter of enormous individual and collective concern. Robert A. Aronowitz, who is a clinician as well as a historian, draws on lively personal anecdotes as well as more standard archival sources to produce an account with both historical sweep and analytic depth." -Samantha J. King, Journal of American History

"...a superb book..." -James S. Olson, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"Breast cancer has a singular history, but the approach of this author would serve analyses well as we expand our historical view from the individual to culture and society." -Linda E. Sabin, Nursing History Review

"[Its] ability to balance physicians' accounts with patients' stories and experiences is the main strength of this book. Aronowitz skillfully finds a middle ground between hagiography and demonization of leading cancer surgeons and researchers."
journal of social history, Heather Munro Prescott, Central Connecticut State University

Book Description

In the early nineteenth century in the United States, cancer in the breast was a rare disease. Now it seems that breast cancer is everywhere. Written by a medical historian who is also a doctor, Unnatural History tells how and why this happened.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 378 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (October 8, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521822491
• ISBN-13: 978-0521822497
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #440,241 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving and Thoughtful History of Medicine, February 21, 2008

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This review is from: Unnatural History: Breast Cancer and American Society (Cambridge Studies in the History of Medicine) (Hardcover)

This is a moving and thoughtful book that packs a lot into relatively few pages. It has haunted me for months since I read it. It is a nuanced, non-polemical account of the hidden dialectic (hidden, at least, to us laymen) between surgeons and internists, family physicians and researchers, counselors and advocates, about what cancer means and how to respond to it. Aronowitz moves skillfully back and forth between broad-stroke history of medical technology and the famous researchers of the past 200 years, and the intimate details of individual patients and their physicians and loved ones, gleaned from journals, correspondence, and medical records. It's not for the faint of heart: Some of the basic themes of the book are profoundly depressing. Aronowitz shows that there was essentially no change in age-adjusted breast cancer mortality in the 200 years between 1800 and 2000, and that most of the apparent improvements in outcomes related to defining more conditions as "cancer" that were less likely to result in death, and treating them aggressively. He also carefully disects the ways in which physicians treating breast cancer cope with the essential hopelessness of much of what they do, including lots of subtle, well-meaning, and even unintended deception of their patients, and finding myriad ways to define "success" that do not depend on prolonging a patient's life or improving its quality. He carefully attends to the interplay of hope, pain, and spiritual fulfillment in the face of death. And he casts a cold light of analysis on many popular ideas about detection and treatment. But he is sympathetic and compassionate towards all, doctors and patients. Most of all, patients.