The epic history of how antibiotics were born, saving millions of lives and creating a vast new industry known as Big Pharma.
William Rosen, author of The Third Horseman, Justinian's Flea, and The Most Powerful Idea in the World, was an editor and a publisher at Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and the Free Press for nearly twenty-five years.
“Rosen’s highly informed retelling captures the drama of
scientists’ quest, against long odds, to find and produce
bacteria-killing drugs—and the egos, ambitions, brilliance and
resolve that drove them. . . . It is a strength of “Miracle Cure”
that Rosen places its many tales of discovery in their larger
contexts . . . an important contribution to a still-germane yet
fast-receding history. And it’s all the more impressive that Rosen,
formerly a book editor and publisher, wrote it as he was battling
his own intractable disease.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“In Miracle Cure, William Rosen tells the lavish story of
antibiotics with the flair and skill of a seasoned novelist,
portraying his characters as all too-human, the research often
fallible but occasionally transcendent. . . . Rosen's chronological
approach gives the narrative its fluency; his wit and vivid detail
make Miracle Cure an absorbing read. . . . A triumph of science
writing that deserves a broad popular audience.”
—Minneapolie Star Tribune
"In this assured chronicle of the twentieth-century antibiotics
revolution, William Rosen delivers reams of science at a
thrilleresque pace. The experimentalists—Gerhard Domagk and Howard
Florey among them—are vividly portrayed, as are the patients cured,
the pharmaceutical corporations created and the moment in 1943 when
bacteriologist Mary Hunt found the ancestor of all penicillin used
today, on a mouldy melon. Antibiotic resistance and putative
solutions are given their due, including Michael Fischbach's work
on microbial-gene clusters in the human microbiome."
—Nature
“Former publisher and editor Rosen tackles a dazzling chapter of
modern medical history in this chronicle of the discoveries that
opened the age of antibiotics and gave humankind its first
effective tool to fight back in an ‘eons-long war’ with infectious
disease… Rosen’s thoughtful, scholarly, and engaging history is a
powerful testament to this fight.”
—Publishers Weekly, (starred review)
“A richly documented history of the rise—and threatened future—of
antibiotics… An encyclopedic reference for researchers and
practitioners but also accessible for general readers due to
Rosen's lively depiction of the people, places, and politics that
color the history of the fight against infectious disease.”'
—Kirkus Reviews, (starred review)
"Miracle Cure is enthralling. Simply and elegantly, Rosen brings so
much vibrancy to this narrative, and the science is gripping from
beginning to end. A lucid and fascinating book, Miracle Cure is a
must-read for anyone with a curious mind."
—Gilbert King, author of the Pulitzer prize-winning, Devil in the
Grove
"Bill Rosen combines detailed analysis with a keen sense of humor
to craft a page-turner describing the discovery of penicillin and
streptomycin to combat scourges that had plagued man from time
immemorial. This seminal historical work also warns the advances
made during the antibiotics revolution in the 20th century are
precarious and might be reversed if we fail to build upon the
legacies of the heroic figures portrayed in Miracle Cure."
—Michael S Kinch, author of A Prescription for Change: The
Looming Crisis in Drug Development
"Carefully researched, hugely informative, and immensely
entertaining."
—Andreas Wagner, author of Arrival of the Fittest
"William Rosen integrates personal histories and scientific
concepts so seamlessly that Miracle Cure reads like a novel—I
found it difficult to put down. This definitive history of
antibiotics is a must-read for anyone interested in modern
medicine.”
—Karl Drlica, Public Health Research Institute, Rutgers University
and author of Antibiotic Resistance
“Rosen is a terrific storyteller and engaging stylist . . . He
invites us to look beyond our . . . differences and recognize that
we too live in a fragile equilibrium with the natural world.”
—The Daily Beast
“Readers will be swept along by the strong current of Mr. Rosen’s
good natured erudition.”
—The Economist
“Rosen is a natural and playful storyteller, and his digressions
both inform the narrative and lend it an eccentric and engaging
rhythm.”
—The New York Times
“Rosen has a facility for the telling anecdote and the quirky
aside.”
—Bill Gates
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