Overview

In 1922, an unlikely team of researchers in Toronto made one of the most important medical breakthroughs of the century: insulin. Their discovery seemed miraculous. When it was given to diabetic patients on the brink of death, their condition rapidly improved. Those present could barely believe their eyes: they had witnessed resurrection. However, this was no simple cure. Injections must be taken for life. Without them, symptoms quickly return, often with fatal results. But while a lifetime on insulin poses great challenges, it also offers opportunities. In this revelatory history, Stuart Bradwel looks back on one of medicine’s most celebrated innovations. Setting professional narrative against subjective patient experience, he tells the story of a drug that has challenged many of the basic assumptions upon which medical practice is built, both inside and outside the clinic. Nevertheless, Bradwel reminds us that the centenary of this apparent “wonder drug” should be no cause for celebration. Insulin often remains inaccessible to those who need it most: elusive prescriptions, uneven availability and sky-high prices result in rationing and desperate do-it-yourself research and development. In the face of bootstraps rhetoric and “Pharma Bro” capitalists, patients across the world are left to fend for themselves. There is a long way to go in the twenty-first century until insulin truly fulfils the extraordinary promises made by its discovery. Also available as an audiobook.

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9781509550722

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Reviews

‘Bradwel’s Insulin: A Hundred-Year History pierces the veil behind the sanitized mainstream history of the twentieth century’s most celebrated medical breakthrough. What is revealed is that the story of insulin and diabetes has always been a story of class, of struggle, of egos, of money and of patients fighting for care they will quite literally die without. A thorough, well-researched and authoritative work.’ James Elliott, #insulin4all activist and diabetes researcher ‘A work of wit and passion, Bradwel fuses historical insight and personal experience to produce a sharp analysis of insulin’s complex scientific, medical and political histories within Europe and North America. Connecting past and present, the voices and experiences of people with diabetes alongside clinicians, Insulin: A Hundred-Year History highlights how a life-saving medication remains inextricably intertwined with contested power dynamics, conflicting cultural values and economic structures that continue to produce profound inequalities.’ Martin Moore, associate research fellow in medical history at the University of Exeter and author of Managing Diabetes, Managing Medicine ‘Bradwel takes his readers through a hundred years of technological progress, the successful extraction and administration of the hormone insulin, while reminding us that technological progress includes multiple actors and assemblages to bring us to our contemporary moment. Insulin highlights a medical treatment that has from its distribution disrupted clinical authority and requires intimate self-care. Insulin is an engaging book that calls attention to the political, social, cultural and economic forces that have led to inequities in access for such an essential and unequalled manufactured hormone.’ Samantha Gottlieb, medical anthropologist and author of Not Quite a Cancer Vaccine

‘Bradwel’s Insulin: A Hundred-Year History pierces the veil behind the sanitized mainstream history of the twentieth century’s most celebrated medical breakthrough. What is revealed is that the story of insulin and diabetes has always been a story of class, of struggle, of egos, of money and of patients fighting for care they will quite literally die without. A thorough, well-researched and authoritative work.’ James Elliott, #insulin4all activist and diabetes researcher ‘A work of wit and passion, Bradwel fuses historical insight and personal experience to produce a sharp analysis of insulin’s complex scientific, medical and political histories within Europe and North America. Connecting past and present, the voices and experiences of people with diabetes alongside clinicians, Insulin: A Hundred-Year History highlights how a life-saving medication remains inextricably intertwined with contested power dynamics, conflicting cultural values and economic structures that continue to produce profound inequalities.’ Martin Moore, associate research fellow in medical history at the University of Exeter and author of Managing Diabetes, Managing Medicine ‘Bradwel takes his readers through a hundred years of technological progress, the successful extraction and administration of the hormone insulin, while reminding us that technological progress includes multiple actors and assemblages to bring us to our contemporary moment. Insulin highlights a medical treatment that has from its distribution disrupted clinical authority and requires intimate self-care. Insulin is an engaging book that calls attention to the political, social, cultural and economic forces that have led to inequities in access for such an essential and unequalled manufactured hormone.’ Samantha Gottlieb, medical anthropologist and author of Not Quite a Cancer Vaccine ‘Bradwel’s scientific narrative is accessible and accompanied by intriguing details about the social and cultural history of the disease. The result is a cogent history that also exposes the inadequacy of current medical systems.’ Publishers Weekly ‘A stinging account … [Bradwel] brings a sharp historical eye to some of the major developments in the field.’ The Wall Street Journal

Author Information

Stuart Bradwel is an honorary research fellow at the Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare (CSHHH) at the University of Strathclyde. He was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2009.

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