Product Description
Diarmuid Jeffreys traces the story of aspirin from the drug’s origins in ancient Egypt, through its industrial development at the end of the nineteenth century and its key role in the great flu pandemic of 1918, to its subsequent exploitation by the pharmaceutical conglomerates and the marvelous powers still being discovered today.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 12 reviews)

Aspirin-The Remarkable Story of a Wonder Drug by Joseph Klinger (Eastern Pennsylvania)

5 Stars
June 08, 2009
An amazing book detailing the most interesting history of a little aspirin tablet. A history that shows how the little aspirin changed so much. It is most interesting general audience books that I have read in years. Highly recommend.

Interesting story and told well by Lehigh History Student

4 Stars
August 11, 2008
Jeffreys does an excellent job of tracing the development of this modern wonder drug and making it accessible to the average reader. While medically and scientifically complex, Aspirin, proved that simple trial and error of the old ways developed modern medicines. Long before the days of clinical trials physicians trusted their instincts and networked together to bring about medicines. Would Aspirin pass an FDA trial today? Doubtful given the stringent requirements but as this book traces through its history we can see the benefits of trying the drug. Part business history, part history of technology, and part social history Jeffrey's thoroughly researched work provides us with the accurate account of how this drug came about. The author points out that he is not a clinician and tries to stick to the historical facts doing an excellent job the entire way through. Overall very well done and an interesting book for those interested in the history of medical technology and science.

Very interesting history of the headache medicine by Aimee Thor (Xenia, Ohio)

5 Stars
April 14, 2006
A very fascinating look at the history of a now common headache remedy. I enjoyed this book very much!

Aspirin The remarkable story of a wonder drug by Big Doc (Metro NY USA)

3 Stars
September 12, 2005
This is a readable book on an interesting subject. Written from the point of view of a journalist and not from that of a scientist, it outlines aspirin's history and use.

good history, slightly overstated in places, well-written by B. Capossere (Rochester, NY USA)

4 Stars
May 09, 2005
Aspirin is follows aspirin through its birth (Ancient Sumer and/or Egypt using willow bark as medicinal treatment), childhood (purification, chemical synthesis), adolescence (the race for monopoly and profit), adulthood (most popular drug on the planet), mid-life crisis (advent of new drugs such as Tylenol and ibuprofen), and its sudden discovery that there is life after middle-age (use as heart medicine and its possible use for a variety of other medicinal purposes). The story is well-paced for the most part and the writing is strong. It's always clear, even when explaining the chemistry, and Jeffreys knows when enough is enough and how to move fluidly from one stage of development to the next. He also does an excellent job of making this as much about people as about chemistry, offering up small but memorable characterizations of the many people involved in aspirin's development, beginning with a young Egyptologist who bought a "found" papyrus that turned out to be the largest medical reference of ancient Egypt. Sometimes in his enthusiasm for his subject Jeffreys may overstate aspirin's influence a bit, such as its historical role in World War II and the Nazi govt. or its efficacy during the flu pandemic of the early 20th century or still-to-be-proven uses such as a cancer fighting drug. But none of these are way out of line and they happen so rarely, and are so reasonable that they detract hardly at all from the book's pleasure. Personally, I found the ancient history and its early history the most interesting and compelling, while the sections on German Bayer's attempts to corner the market and its later influence in Nazism to be a little overlong. Not that they weren't interesting in their own right, just that they could have been cut a bit more. Again, a small quibble. In fact, there's very little to complain about here. An interesting read, a quick one, a clear explanation of science and the intersection of science/medicine/capitalism, an enjoyable examination of scientists and inventors little known to the vast majority of us. Recommended.

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	Hell's Cartel: IG Farben and the Making of Hitler's War Machine by Diarmuid Jeffreys (Author) The remarkable rise and shameful fall of one of the twentieth century’s greatest conglomerates At its peak in the 1930s, the German chemical conglomerate IG Farben was one of the most powerful corporations in the world. To this day, companies formerly part of the Farben cartel—the aspirin-maker Bayer, the graphics supplier Agfa, the plastics giant BASF—continue to play key roles in the global market. IG Farben itself, however, is remembered mostly for...
	The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat: The Story of the Penicillin Miracle by Eric Lax (Author) "Admirable, superbly researched . . . perhaps the most exciting tale of science since the apple dropped on Newton's head." —Simon Winchester, The New York Times Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin in his London laboratory in 1928 and its eventual development as the first antibiotic by a team at Oxford University headed by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain in 1942 led to the introduction of the most important family of drugs of the twentieth century. Yet credit...
	Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentlemen Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail by Stephen Bown (Author) Scurvy took a terrible toll in the Age of Sail, killing more sailors than were lost in all sea battles combined. The threat of the disease kept ships close to home and doomed those vessels that ventured too far from port. The willful ignorance of the royal medical elite, who endorsed ludicrous medical theories based on speculative research while ignoring the life-saving properties of citrus fruit, cost tens of thousands of lives and altered the course of many battles at sea. The cure for scurvy...
	The Aspirin Wars: Money, Medicine and 100 Years of Rampant Competition by Charles C. Mann (Author), Mark L. Plummer (Author) No drug in the world outsells aspirin. With billions of dollars at stake, and no medically significant differences among the hundreds of brands around the globe, rival drug makers have been driven to the extremes of corporate warfare. Authors Mann and Plummer look inside this world of relentless competition to show the ploys, the battles, the bursts of extraordinary marketing, advertising and litigation that have resulted - and relate the unique and little-known medical history of the drug...
	The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson (Author) A National Bestseller, a New York Times Notable Book, and an Entertainment Weekly Best Book of the Year It's the summer of 1854, and London is just emerging as one of the first modern cities in the world. But lacking the infrastructure-garbage removal, clean water, sewers-necessary to support its rapidly expanding population, the city has become the perfect breeding ground for a terrifying disease no one knows how to cure. As the cholera outbreak takes hold, a physician and a local curate...