BOOK OF THE WEEK: FORTY-SEVEN, 2011

Keith Wailoo, How Cancer Crossed the Color Line (Oxford & New York: Oxford U. Press, 2011) (From the bookjacket: "In the course of the 20th century, cancer went from being perceived as a white woman's nemesis to a 'democratic disease' to a fearsome threat in communities of color. Drawing on film and fiction, on medical and epidemiological evidence, and on patients' accounts, Keith Wailoo tracks this transformation in cancer awareness, revealing how not only awareness, but also cancer prevention, treatment, and survival, have been refracted through the lens of race." [] "A pioneering study, How Cancer Crossed the Color Line gracefully documents how race and gender became central motifs in the birth of cancer awareness, how patterns and perceptions changed over time, and how the 'war on cancer' continues to be waged along the color line.").