{"product_id":"the-gospel-of-germs-men-women-and-the-microbe-in-american-life-9780674357075","title":"The Gospel of Germs: Men  Women  and the Microbe in American Life","description":"\u003cp\u003eAIDS. 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45256807022645,"sku":"ByrdShop_0674357078","price":92.67,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780674357075_0dd1f91b-b568-4815-b08b-501a4e1357f4.jpg?v=1780620826","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-gospel-of-germs-men-women-and-the-microbe-in-american-life-9780674357075","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}