Aspirin: The Story of a Wonder Drug

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7479.1408

BMJ 2004;329:1408 (11 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7479.1408

reviews

Book

Aspirin: The Story of a Wonder Drug

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

It might seem strange to have a popular book of more than 300pages dedicated to just one drug. But aspirin is a special case.One of the most brilliant medical historians and journalistsof our time, the late Roy Porter, wrote a book called The GreatestBenefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity from Antiquityto the Present ( BMJ 1998;316: 713[Free Full Text]). Replace "humanity" for"aspirin" in the title, and it would ideally fit the book underreview. Diarmuid Jeffreys, a journalist and television producer,has written an inspiring story based on archival sources, interviews,and an amazing knowledge of the relevant literature. His bookclearly demonstrates that the border between academic medicalhistory and journalistic investigation is blurred.