The Gospel of Germs
Men, Women, and the Microbe in American Life
Nancy Tomes
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
The Gospel of Germs
Men, Women, and the Microbe in American Life
Nancy Tomes
About This Book
AIDS. Ebola. "Killer microbes." All around us the alarms are going off, warning of the danger of new, deadly diseases. And yet, as Nancy Tomes reminds us in her absorbing book, this is really nothing new. A remarkable work of medical and cultural history, The Gospel of Germs takes us back to the first great "germ panic" in American history, which peaked in the early 1900s, to explore the origins of our modern disease consciousness.Little more than a hundred years ago, ordinary Americans had no idea that many deadly ailments were the work of microorganisms, let alone that their own behavior spread such diseases. The Gospel of Germs shows how the revolutionary findings of late nineteenth-century bacteriology made their way from the laboratory to the lavatory and kitchen, with public health reformers spreading the word and women taking up the battle on the domestic front. Drawing on a wealth of advice books, patent applications, advertisements, and oral histories, Tomes traces the new awareness of the microbe as it radiated outward from middle-class homes into the world of American business and crossed the lines of class, gender, ethnicity, and race.Just as we take some of the weapons in this germ war for granted--fixtures as familiar as the white porcelain toilet, the window screen, the refrigerator, and the vacuum cleaner--so we rarely think of the drastic measures deployed against disease in the dangerous old days before antibiotics. But, as Tomes notes, many of the hygiene rules first popularized in those days remain the foundation of infectious disease control today. Her work offers a timely look into the history of our long-standing obsession with germs, its impact on twentieth-century culture and society, and its troubling new relevance to our own lives.
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Abbreviations
AHS | Atlanta Lung Association Papers, Atlanta History Center, Atlanta, Georgia |
ALA | Archives, American Lung Association, New York, New York |
BHM | Bulletin of the History of Medicine |
BJBSC | Bulletin of the Joint Board of Sanitary Control |
BNTA | Bulletin of the National Tuberculosis Association |
CHS | Chicago Historical Society, Chicago, Illinois |
CPP | Historical Collections, College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
CRCFW | Cornell Reading-Course for Farmers’ Wives |
CSS | Community Service Society Papers, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University, New York, New York |
CU | Records, Office of the Dean, New York State College of Home Economics, Group 749, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, New York |
CUE | Extension Records, New York State College of Home Economics, Group 919, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, New York |
DC | R. G. Dun and Company Collection, Baker Library, Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration, Cambridge, Massachusetts |
GH | Good Housekeeping |
GMM | George Meany Memorial Archives, Silver Spring, Maryland |
HC | Trade Catalog Collection, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Delaware |
HD | Records of the Du Pont Cellophane Company, Series 2, Part 2, Archives of the E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Delaware |
HL | Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts |
HM | The Hotel Monthly |
ILR | Collection 60, Union Health Center, International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union, Records, Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York |
JBSC | Joint Board of Sanitary Control |
JHE | Journal of Home Economics |
JHM | Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences |
JOL | Journal of the Outdoor Life |
JWT | J. Walter Thompson Company Archives, Special Collections Library, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina |
KC | Oral Histories, Corinne Krause Collection, Library and Archives, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
LHJ | Ladies’ Home Journal |
NA | Record Group 42, Series 87, Correspondence and Other Records, Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks of the National Capital, National Archives, Washington, D.C. |
NLM | Historical Division, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland |
NTA | National Tuberculosis Association |
NU | Neighborhood Union Collection, Series 14-B, Special Collections and Archives, Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia |
NYH | New York Herald |
NYT | New York Times |
PC | Department of History, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
PO | United States Patent Office, Alexandria, Virginia |
PSM | Popular Science Monthly |
PSPT | Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Tuberculosis |
SCH | School of Home Economics, Records, 1900–1972, Record Group 22.2, the College Archives, Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts |
SCP | School of Public Health Nursing, School of Nursing Records, 1902–1970, Record Group 22.1, the College Archives, Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts |
SE | Sanitary Engineer |
SEP | Saturday Evening Post |
TU | Tuskegee University Archives, Tuskegee, Alabama |
UA | Central Labor Union Minutes, Records of Philadelphia Council, AFL-CIO, microfilm reels 1 and 2, Urban Archives, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
UPA | University of Pennsylvania Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
VP | Special Collections, University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
WC | Warshaw Collection, Smithsonian Institution Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C. |