The Gospel of Germs

Men, Women, and the Microbe in American Life

Nancy Tomes

  • 2001 Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize, Sponsored by the History of Science Society
  • 2002 Welch Medal, Sponsored by the American Association for the History of Medicine, Inc.

Preface: Memories of Disease Past

Introduction: The Gospel of Germs

Part I: The Gospel Emergent, 1870-1890

Apostles of the Germ

Whited Sepulchers

Entrepreneurs of the Germ

Part II: The Gospel Triumphant, 1890-1920

Disciples of the Laboratory

Tuberculosis Religion

The Domestication of the Germ

Part III: The Gospel in Practice, 1900-1930

Antisepticonscious America

The Wages of Dirt Were Death

The Two-Edged Sword

Part IV: The Gospel in Retreat

The Waning of Enthusiasm

Epilogue: The Gospel of Germs in the Age of AIDS

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

  • Cover: The Gospel of Germs
  • A photo of the author

Nancy Tomes is Professor of History, State University of New York at Stony Brook, and the author of The Art of Asylum-Keeping: Thomas Story Kirkbride and the Origins of American Psychiatry.