|
Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries |  | Author: Molly Caldwell Crosby
Publisher: Berkley Hardcover
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $12.47
as of 7/29/2010 06:19 CDT details
You Save: $12.48 (50%)
New (41) Used (13) from $11.45
Seller: strandbookstore
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 129088
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0425225704
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.19684980094
EAN: 9780425225707
ASIN: 0425225704
Publication Date: March 2, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780425225707 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Another fascinating foray into medical history from the author of The American Plague
In 1918, a world war was raging, and a lethal strain of influenza was circling the globe. In the midst of all this death, a bizarre disease appeared in Europe. Eventually known as encephalitis lethargica, or sleeping sickness, it would spread across the world, leaving millions dead or locked in institutions.
Then, in 1927, it would disappear as suddenly as it had arrived-or so the doctors at first thought.
Asleep, set in 1920s and '30s New York, follows a group of neurologists through hospitals and insane asylums as they try to solve this worldwide epidemic.
The symptoms could include not only unending sleep but dangerous insomnia, facial tics, catatonia, Parkinson's, and even violent insanity. Molly Caldwell Crosby, acclaimed author of The American Plague, explores the frightening history of this forgotten disease- and details the frantic effort to conquer it before it strikes again.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
Fascinating and Informative March 4, 2010
Feathered Quill Book Reviews (Goshen, MA)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
The year was 1918, and while the world was caught in the midst of a massive war, it was also facing a quiet, but quite deadly strain of influenza that ripped through every country leaving a massive amount of death in its wake. Oddly, in the crux of all the horror and death, another disease surfaced in Europe that proved to be perplexing and completely stumped physicians. The patients suffered from anomalous sleeping symptoms, facial tics and often savage insanity. This strange illness eventually spread around the world, and left a profusion of
permanently debilitated patients in asylums, and caused death in
other patients. Physicians scrambled for answers to this unknown sleeping sickness, which was finally named Encephalitis Lethargica, and by the time they believed they had some answers, although not any concrete enough to consistently assist those suffering from it, Encephalitis Lethargica simply vanished from the world in 1927.
This story is about the few neurologists, primarily in New York, who tirelessly studied this disease's effect. They visited homes and asylums, documented every patient and their unusual and devastating symptoms, spent further hours researching, and finally gave presentations on the disease to educate others. Their hope was to put an end to the ravaging effects of Encephalitis Lethargica before it reared its ugly ahead again.
Molly Crosby truly has a knack for mixing elegant storytelling with researched historical events that entices readers right from the beginning, smoothly and consistently interests readers throughout with biographies of the key players, and well documented case studies, and closes with a personal account that brings the book full circle. Encephalitis Lethargica is a dreadfully serious disease, but is virtually an unknown and mysterious threat that continues to linger, throughout the world. However, thanks to this engrossing book, light is being shed upon the possible potential threat EL could have on people in the present day by exposing the events in detail that led up to the original epidemic.
Readers should not be turned-off by this medical related topic when selecting their possible next read because although it is indeed packed full of research, it reads more like a fascinating medical mystery, rather than a stuffy research paper. Still, the book includes critical documentation that also makes it a crucial read for those in the medical field.
Quill says: This is a well told and quite informative read about a virtually unknown disease, and is highly recommended.
Interesting from start to finish April 3, 2010
Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
From roughly 1915 to roughly 1926, the world saw an epidemic with strange symptoms. Most sufferers fell into a deep and nearly unbreakable sleep, though other experienced unending insomnia, Parkinson's-like symptoms, and even violent insanity. Neurologists at the time discovered through autopsies that sufferers of the disease experience a swelling of the hypothalamus (in the brain), and labeled the disease Encephalitis Lethargica - which is to say, a swelling of the brain that makes on sleepy.
But, this was a description of the effects of the disease, rather than a description of the cause. This book tells the story of the disease and its effects on the world (Did Woodrow Wilson contract the disease? And, did Hitler?), and it tells the story of the efforts to combat the disease and its effects on the science of neurology.
Overall, I found this to be a very interesting book. As the title suggests, when historic epidemics are discussed, Encephalitis Lethargica never seems to show up, and yet at the time it was quite famous (or infamous). The author does an excellent job of telling the story of the disease, the world it entered, and the effects it had on the world.
I have read a number of books on diseases and epidemics (yeah, my wife thinks it's a weird subject to be interested in), and some are better than others. As for this book, it was interesting from start to finish, and a cracking good read!
"Asleep" sheds light on family mystery April 2, 2010
J. A. Monfort (SE Wash.)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
An interview on NPR alerted me to Ms. Crosby's book. I, too, had a grandmother diagnosed and recovered from sleeping sickness. Crosby's investigation shed light on how this disease affected families and how victims were trapped in their own bodies. Having grown up in an era where children didn't ask probing questions of family members, I found this to be a book worth sharing with siblings.
"Death wasn't the worst fate." April 23, 2010
E. Bukowsky (NY United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Molly Caldwell Crosby's "Asleep," traces a strange malady whose origins are shrouded in mystery. Encephalitis lethargica ("a swelling of the brain that makes one sleepy") "came in two waves--the first began in 1916 and peaked in 1920." A second wave struck in 1924. Today, few people remember this scourge that killed closed to a million people all over the world. One of the victims was Crosby's grandmother, Virginia Thompson Brownlee, who became ill in 1929 at the age of sixteen but was fortunate enough to survive with limited long-term effects. Tragically, many of the afflicted were children and young adults whose brains were not yet fully developed; they were not all equipped, physically or emotionally, to battle this destructive illness.
Although the symptoms of encephalitis lethargica varied from one individual to the next, some of the manifestations were: disconnectedness from one's body, lethargy, delirium, slurred speech, stiffness, seizures, tics, Parkinsonism, and extreme personality changes. Some people became catatonic or went into a deep sleep for long periods of time. Around one third recovered, one third died, and one third survived. However, some became so disabled that they were permanently institutionalized. One common thread is that many of the sufferers had recovered from the flu before they came down with encephalitis lethargica. Even those who appeared to have recovered fully were vulnerable to recurrences years later. It was almost as if a demon lay dormant in their bodies, only to reemerge when they least expected it.
Crosby divides her book into seven chapters, each of which recounts a compelling case history, including that of Jessie Morgan, the wife of financier J. P. Morgan. The author brings her subject to life not only by delving into the experiences of individual victims, but also by exploring the careers of prominent physicians who cared for patients with this ailment. Enhancing the narrative are richly described details of the social, cultural, medical, and political climate that served as a backdrop for the pandemic. Crosby puts encephalitis lethargica in context as she recounts the horrors of World War I, the influenza outbreak that killed more than twenty million people, the building boom in New York City, the amazing technological developments of the 1920's, the Stock Market Crash, the Great Depression, advances in neuropsychiatry, epidemiology, and public health, and the construction of new facilities to house the mentally ill.
Theories abound, but to this day no one knows what causes encephalitis lethargica. Oliver Sacks, the renowned writer and neurologist who wrote about his work with encephalitis patients in "Awakenings," asserts that "this strange, often terrible disease is not extinct, only quiescent. It may well strike again in our lifetimes." "Asleep" reads like a riveting novel that one wishes were merely a nightmare invented by an imaginative writer. Unfortunately, it is all too real. Crosby's facts are meticulously documented; she includes photographs, extensive endnotes, a lengthy bibliography, and a thorough index. This is a beautifully written, lucid, multilayered, and unforgettable work of non-fiction.
The true account of a sleeping sickness epidemic May 14, 2010
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
ASLEEP: THE FORGOTTEN EPIDEMIC THAT REMAINS ONE OF MEDICINE'S GREATEST MYSTERIES provides the true account of a sleeping sickness epidemic that blends case studies and interviews with family members with the story of a group of New York doctors who spent their lives seeking the cause, treatment and cure for the disease. In 1927 the disease vanished as quickly as it appeared: this examines its foundations and lasting effects.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
|
|
|
Copyright © 2009 Diseases, Medical, and Preventive Ways
| |
