The Mirage of Health: Utopia, Progress, and Biological Change / Edition 1

'Complete freedom from disease and from struggle is almost incompatible with the process of living, ' Rene Dubos asserted in this classic essay on ecology and health. All the accomplishments of science and technology, he argued, will not bring the utopian dream of universal well-being, because they ignore the dynamic process of adaptation to a constantly changing environment that every living organism must face.

ISBN-13: 9780813512600

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Rutgers University Press

Publication Date: 10-01-1987

Pages: 294

Product Dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.80(d)

Rene Dubos (1901 - 1982) is also an author of The White Plague: Tuberculosis, Man and Society, which is also available from Rutgers University Press.

Table of Contents

1. The Gardens of Eden
2. Biological and Social Adaptation
3. Struggle and Partnership in the Living World
4. Environment and Disease
5. Hygeia and Asclepius
6. Social Patterns of Health and of Disease
7. Effects of Disease on Populations and on Civilization
8. Utopias and Human Goals