Gregg Mitman
WRITING // BOOKS
BREATHING SPACE
HOW ALLERGIES SHAPE OUR LIVES AND LANDSCAPES
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007
Allergy is the sixth leading cause of chronic illness in the United States. More than fifty million Americans suffer from allergies, and they spend an estimated $18 billion coping with them. Yet despite advances in biomedicine and enormous investment in research over the past fifty years, the burden of allergic disease continues to grow. Why have we failed to reverse this trend?
Breathing Space offers an intimate portrait of how allergic disease has shaped American culture, landscape, and life. Drawing on environmental, medical, and cultural history and the life stories of people, plants, and insects, Mitman traces how America’s changing environment from the late 1800s to the present day has led to the epidemic growth of allergic disease. We have seen a never-ending stream of solutions to combat allergies, from hay fever resorts, herbicides, and air-conditioned homes to numerous potions and pills. But, as Mitman shows, despite the quest for a magic bullet, none of the attempted solutions has succeeded. Until we address how our changing environment―physical, biological, social, and economic―has helped to create America’s allergic landscape, that hoped-for success will continue to elude us.
AWARDS
Recognized for Outstanding Achievement by the Wisconsin Library Association Literary Awards
Committee.
Selected as a 2008 AAUP University Press Book for Public and Secondary School Libraries.
Finalist for the 2008 Cundill International Prize in History, given by the Cundill Foundation at
McGill University.
Winner of the 2012 William H. Welch Medal given by the American Association for the History
of Medicine
SELECT REVIEWS
Washington Post
Hay fever got you down? Feel an asthma attack coming on? Drop the inhaler and reach for Gregg Mitman’s book instead. His inspired history of these ailments in the United States won’t provide a cure but does offer a sort of palliative context.— Adrian Higgins
Booklist
Mitman directs steely, twenty-twenty insight at popular misapprehensions, past and present, of the causes and cures of allergies, hay fever and asthma, in particular. . . . Full of the wisdom of lessons learned as well as of noted authorities, Mitman’s thoughtful presentation is nothing to sneeze at.”
Choice
“In six highly detailed and entertaining chapters, the author offers readers an overview of the disease, from the development of resorts for the rich to escape their yearly bout of ‘hay fever’ to the present direction of attacking allergies with a wide spectrum of drugs that provide some degree of relief. The illustrations are wonderful, as is the clear, concise writing. . . . This book will greatly benefit not only health care professionals but also those who fight allergies each day. Highly recommended.”
WRITING // BOOKS
BREATHING SPACE
HOW ALLERGIES SHAPE OUR LIVES AND LANDSCAPES
Allergy is the sixth leading cause of chronic illness in the United States. More than fifty million Americans suffer from allergies, and they spend an estimated $18 billion coping with them. Yet despite advances in biomedicine and enormous investment in research over the past fifty years, the burden of allergic disease continues to grow. Why have we failed to reverse this trend?
Breathing Space offers an intimate portrait of how allergic disease has shaped American culture, landscape, and life. Drawing on environmental, medical, and cultural history and the life stories of people, plants, and insects, Mitman traces how America’s changing environment from the late 1800s to the present day has led to the epidemic growth of allergic disease. We have seen a never-ending stream of solutions to combat allergies, from hay fever resorts, herbicides, and air-conditioned homes to numerous potions and pills. But, as Mitman shows, despite the quest for a magic bullet, none of the attempted solutions has succeeded. Until we address how our changing environment―physical, biological, social, and economic―has helped to create America’s allergic landscape, that hoped-for success will continue to elude us.
AWARDS
Recognized for Outstanding Achievement by the Wisconsin Library Association Literary Awards
Committee.
Selected as a 2008 AAUP University Press Book for Public and Secondary School Libraries.
Finalist for the 2008 Cundill International Prize in History, given by the Cundill Foundation at
McGill University.
Winner of the 2012 William H. Welch Medal given by the American Association for the History
of Medicine
SELECT REVIEWS
Washington Post
Hay fever got you down? Feel an asthma attack coming on? Drop the inhaler and reach for Gregg Mitman’s book instead. His inspired history of these ailments in the United States won’t provide a cure but does offer a sort of palliative context.— Adrian Higgins
Booklist
Mitman directs steely, twenty-twenty insight at popular misapprehensions, past and present, of the causes and cures of allergies, hay fever and asthma, in particular. . . . Full of the wisdom of lessons learned as well as of noted authorities, Mitman’s thoughtful presentation is nothing to sneeze at.”
Choice
“In six highly detailed and entertaining chapters, the author offers readers an overview of the disease, from the development of resorts for the rich to escape their yearly bout of ‘hay fever’ to the present direction of attacking allergies with a wide spectrum of drugs that provide some degree of relief. The illustrations are wonderful, as is the clear, concise writing. . . . This book will greatly benefit not only health care professionals but also those who fight allergies each day. Highly recommended.”
© 2019 Gregg Mitman