The Progress of Experiment: Science and Therapeutic Reform in the United States, 1900–1990 (Cambridge Studies in the History of Medicine) (Volume 0)

This book explores the origins of our contemporary system of drug regulation and the modern clinical trial. Marks illustrates the symbiotic relationship between the history of modern drug regulation and the history of therapeutic reform. Accompanying this history of public policy is a detailed account of changing experimental ideals and practices. Marks traces the history of therapeutic experimentation, from the "collective investigations" of the past century to the controlled clinical trial that emerged after 1950 as the paradigm of scientific experimentation. The result is the first general history of clinical research in the United States, a book that examines therapeutic experiments in a wide range of diseases, from syphilis and pneumonia to heart disease and diabetes.

How do we evaluate the safety and benefit of new drugs? What tasks do we hold government responsible for and which ones do we leave to the medical profession? This book explores the origins of our contemporary system of drug regulation and of the modern clinical trial. Harry Marks looks at the science and politics of drug evaluation, tracing the history of therapeutic experimentation from the "collective investigations" of the last century to the modern-day controlled clinical trial, while exploring the influence of academic ideal on governmental drug regulation.