Therapeutic Revolutions

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When asked to compare the practice of medicine today to that of a hundred years ago, most people will respond with a story of therapeutic revolution: back then we had few effective remedies, now we have more (and more powerful) tools to fight disease. In this version of history, medicine was made modern and effectual by medicines. The aim of "Therapeutic Revolutions" is to challenge the linearity of this historical narrative, provide a thicker explanation of the process of therapeutic transformation, and explore the complex relationships between medicines and social change. Working on three continents and touching upon the lived experiences of patients and physicians, consumers and providers, marketers and regulators, the contributors to this volume together reveal the tensions between universal claims of therapeutic knowledge and the specificity of local sites in which they are put into practice, asking, collectively: what is revolutionary about therapeutics? "