No Magic Bullet : A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States since 1880- 35th Anniversary Edition

The epidemic of AIDS and herpes virus has called into question not only the ability of the medical profession to treat venereal disease but also its willingness to do so. No Magic Bullet, a perceptive analysis of the treatment of venereal diseases since the 1880s, places these questions in critical historical perspective. Beginning with Victorian hysteria about syphilis and continuing to contemporary treatment of AIDS, Allan Brandt recounts the various medical, military, and public health responses to venereal diseases that have arisen over the years. Brandt demonstrates that Americans'' tendency to view sexually transmitted disease as both a punishment for sexual misconduct and an index of social decay has seriously impeded efforts to develop "magic bullets," the miracle drugs that would effectively halt the spread of infection. For this 35th Anniversary Edition, Brandt reflects on recent scholarship, the persistence of sexually transmitted diseases, and the trajectory of the HIV epidemic, as they have informed contemporary conceptions of biomedicine and global health.

From Victorian anxieties about syphilis to the current hysteria over herpes and AIDS, the history of venereal disease in America forces us to examine social attitudes as well as purely medical concerns. In No Magic Bullet, Allan M. Brandt recounts the various medical, military, and public health responses that have arisen over the years--a broad spectrum that ranges from the incarceration of prostitutes during World War I to the establishment of required premarital blood tests.Brandt demonstrates that Americans'' concerns about venereal disease have centered around a set of social and cultural values related to sexuality, gender, ethnicity, and class. At the heart of our efforts to combat these infections, he argues, has been the tendency to view venereal disease as both a punishment for sexual misconduct and an index of social decay. This tension between medical and moral approaches has significantly impeded efforts to develop "magic bullets"--drugs that would rid us of the disease--as well as effective policies for controlling the infections'' spread.In this 35th anniversary edition of No Magic Bullet, Brandt reflects on recent scholarship, the persistence of sexually transmitted diseases, and the trajectory of the HIV epidemic, as they have informed contemporary conceptions of biomedicine and global health.