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"Rickets, a disease that causes softening and distorting of the bones of children, was, until a few centuries ago, an infrequent threat affecting relatively few. But in the mean streets of the Industrial Revolution entire generations of children were starved of food, starved for light, and plagued with rickets of crushing severity. Conditions of slavery in the US brought similar destructive effects to African American children. And so, by the late 1800s rickets was one of the most common diseases of childhood in Europe and the United States, an intractable consequence of modern life--a "disease of civilization." Starved for Light offers the first comprehensive history of rickets up to the present day. This couldn't be more timely, since from the start of the twenty-first century the disease has appeared to be staging a comeback on more than one occasion. The author traces the scramble to understand and tame rickets, which culminated in the miracle cure of industrially produced vitamin D supplements, while also mapping the efforts in the years before the "cure" to treat rickets and ameliorate its long-term effects. This puts rickets at the center of several chapters of medical history, shaping modern obstetrics, nutrition science, medical ethics, orthopedic surgery, environmental health, and the study of racial health disparities"--
About the author
Christian Warren is professor of history at Brooklyn College. He is the author of
Brush with Death: A Social History of Lead Poisoning.
