For the Love of Enzymes

and etiology. Patterson carefully traces the development of these cancer countercultures and the anticancer alliance, as well as the conflicts which arose between and within the groups. These conflicts included debates over funding cancer prevention programs versus laboratory research, and whether such laboratory research should focus on basic biology or be targeted more toward cancer etiologies and therapies. A central thesis of the book is that conflicts such as these reflected the overall social and economic divisions of the times. For example, many lower-income and lesser-educated Americans followed counterculture elements such as faith healers and home cancer remedies because they distrusted the medical establishment. Patterson thoughtfully explores these and other similar issues in a well-illustrated and well-referenced fashion. His critical line of reasoning assembles the facts and figures into a logical and interesting examination of the topic. Some readers may note a resemblance of this historical study to Illness as Metaphor by Susan Sontag (New York, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1977), which is a literary essay. Sontag focuses on the personal and interpersonal aspects of tuberculosis and cancer, drawing heavily upon poetry and literature as her sources. In contrast, Patterson concentrates on the sociology and psychology of cancer as reflected at the larger societal and institutional levels. Moreover, Sontag does not limit her discussion to cancer, the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, or the United States, as Patterson does. Patterson's work is thus distinctly different from Illness as Metaphor in its focus and scope. The only flaw in this book is the lack of graphical presentation of numerical data discussed within its text. This omission was not, however, prohibitive to either the value or enjoyment of the book, and I found The Dread Disease: Cancer and Modern American Culture to be highly informative and insightful. I recommend it to cancer scientists, physicians, and historians, and anyone interested in the social history of cancer in modern America.