More than just a timeline, BREAST CANCER: Society Shapes an
Epidemic is a fascinating look at how the social and political
fervor behind breast cancer awareness has now worked to change the
way it is viewed in the public mind: as a social problem rather
than just a medical one. Although written by "doctors" of a sort,
Ph.D.s who have looked at the disease from a sociological
perspective, BREAST CANCER: Society Shapes an Epidemic is much more
informative about how the labors of party politics, economics,
gender, social class, and race-ethnicity have all played a crucial
part in making this a social construct instead of a medical
statistic.

The chapters on policy making and particularly on controversies in
research will be interesting to anyone who has had to participate
as a guinea pig in research tests, or young physicians who are
interested in working in the field. Like AND THE BAND PLAYED ON,
the historical look at the AIDS virus and the hunt for a cure, it
concentrates on both the good and bad effects that human beings
have had on the race for a resolution to this epidemic illness. The
fact that it affects more women than men is discussed as are the
minor ways in which it affects the men who get it as well. Although
the doctors' scholarly approach may turn off the reader just
looking for a Health magazine-type discussion, once you start
reading, if it peeks your interest, you will stick with it until
the end.

Books like this one are incredibly important in continuing to shape
the policy that affects millions of women's lives every year. With
a smart and intuitive Foreword by breast cancer research pioneer
Dr. Susan Love, BREAST CANCER: Society Shapes an Epidemic is a
fascinating look at the other side of this horrific disease. It
gives great hope that massive work is being done behind the scenes
to determine the cause and render the illness extinct in the coming
century.