Promotional Information

This book traces the history of syphilis and efforts to control the disease in the United States, from Colonial times to the present.

Table of Contents

Introduction Chapter 1. The Great Pox: Origins and European Background Chapter 2. A Secret Disease: Syphilis in America Before the First World War Chapter 3. Continence is Not Incompatible with Health: Syphilis in World War I Chapter 4. Congress Apparently Thought the Spirochetes of Syphilis Were Demobilized: The Interwar Years Chapter 5. Fool the Axis Use Prophylaxis: Syphilis in World War II Chapter 6. Magic in the Form of Penicillin: Syphilis in America Since World War II Chapter Notes Bibliography

About the Author

John Parascandola is a lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Maryland. He has served as Chief of the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine, after which he became the Public Health Service Historian, a position he held until his retirement in 2004. He is also the author of The Development of American Pharmacology: John J. Abel and the Shaping of a Discipline (1992).

Reviews

A wise adage directs readers not to judge a book by its cover. The same can be said for a title and an alluring dust jacket. . . . This is a book written by an eminent professional for the serious-minded. Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through professionals/practitioners.
*Choice*

Parascandola's history of syphilis is compelling from the beginning.
*CDC's "Emerging Infectious Diseases"*

Parascandola provides a useful overview of the political and cultural factors that shaped the history of syphilis and the American public's response to it. His goal was to produce a history for the general reader, and this nicely written book, with its fascinating illustrations, should attract a wide audience.
*The Journal of American History*

…interesting and informative account of multiple discourses regarding sexually transmitted diseases. . . . Sex, Sin, and Syphilis is compelling, interesting, and informative. It is both scholarly and accessible to the general reader. And it is timely, in light of a current rise in the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases.
*Bulletin of the History of Medicine*

This book contains enough information -- both charming and thought-provoking -- to aerate any lecture. . . . Well worth the price of admission is Parascandola's discussion of the Tuskegee experiment. . . . That section provides one of the most powerful discussions I've read on exploring the context of medicine to extrapolate meaning. Likewise, Parascandola does an excellent job of exploring the problems of syphilis infection after the development of antibiotics.
*Journal of Social History*