Mirage of Health - Utopias, Progress and Biological Change (Paperback, New edition)

In the World Perspectives series, this takes a long view of the pursuit of health and happiness from ancient times to the present, and finds that drugs have not achieved freedom from disease (we are today perhaps more than ever dependent on them- certainly emotionally)- a freedom which is in itself "incompatible with the process of living". This is then both a biological and microbiological perspective of man- with broader conceptual implications: of our attitudes toward disease; of the tide of infectious and nutritional illnesses which had ebbed- long before laboratory science had achieved its controls; of the adaptive mechanisms of man (immunity, in particular) to his environment; of the role played by microbes both beneficial and harmful; of the accidental- to undiscoverable factors in the causation of disease; of the diseases of surfeit as well as starvation, of pestilence and filth; and of the effects of disease on history, on political and cultural forces... It is a stimulating survey - of man's struggle to survive which science cannot foreordain, filled with fascinating facts of the phenomena of disease- and healing- the world over. Dr. Dubos, a member of the Rockefeller Institute, who may be remembered for his earlier Louis Pasteur, writes well and has a tremendous variety of information at his command. (Kirkus Reviews)

'Complete freedom from disease and from struggle is almost incompatible with the process of living, ' Rene Dubos asserted in this classic essay on ecology and health. All the accomplishments of science and technology, he argued, will not bring the utopian dream of universal well-being, because they ignore the dynamic process of adaptation to a constantly changing environment that every living organism must face.

General

Imprint:	Rutgers University Press
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	October 1987
First published:	September 1987
Authors:	Rene Dubos
Dimensions:	214 x 146 x 18mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	236
Edition:	New edition
ISBN-13:	978-0-8135-1260-0
Categories:	Books > Medicine > General issues > General Books > Health, Home & Family > Family & health > General Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Human biology & related topics > General Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Applied ecology > General Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Illness & addiction: social aspects > General
LSN:	0-8135-1260-3
Barcode:	9780813512600

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