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How to Sell a Poison: The Rise, Fall, and Toxic Return of DDT - Hardcover | Diverse Reads

How to Sell a Poison: The Rise, Fall, and Toxic Return of DDT

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The story of an infamous poison that left toxic bodies and decimated wildlife in its wake is also a cautionary tale about how corporations stoke the flames of science denialism for profit.

The chemical compound DDT first earned fame during World War II by wiping out insects that caused disease and boosting Allied forces to victory. Americans granted it a hero’s homecoming, spraying it on everything from crops and livestock to cupboards and curtains. Then, in 1972, it was banned in the US. But decades after that, a cry arose to demand its return. 


This is the sweeping narrative of generations of Americans who struggled to make sense of the notorious chemical’s risks and benefits. Historian Elena Conis follows DDT from postwar farms, factories, and suburban enclaves to the floors of Congress and tony social clubs, where industry barons met with Madison Avenue brain trusts to figure out how to sell the idea that a little poison in our food and bodies was nothing to worry about.


In an age of spreading misinformation on issues including pesticides, vaccines, and climate change, Conis shows that we need new ways of communicating about science—as a constantly evolving discipline, not an immutable collection of facts—before it’s too late.

ISBN-13: 9781645036746

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Publication Date: 04-12-2022

Pages: 400

Product Dimensions: 6.20(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.70(d)

Elena Conis is a writer and historian of medicine, public health, and the environment. She teaches at the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and the Department of History, and directs the graduate program in Public Health and Journalism. Her current research focuses on scientific controversies, science denial, and the public understanding of science, and has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Institutes of Health/National Library of Medicine, and the Science History Institute. Her first book, Vaccine Nation: America’s Changing Relationship with Immunization, received the Arthur J. Viseltear Award from the American Public Health Association and was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title and a Science Pick of the Week by the journal Nature.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Prologue: Fish for the Table 7

Part I

1 Not Too Much 15

2 Polio City 31

3 Flies 39

4 Production 50

5 Economic Poisons 57

6 Virus X 67

7 Poisoned in Our Own Homes 75

8 Medical Standing 85

9 Delaney's Clause 96

10 Mosquitoes 104

Part II

11 Don't Call It a Poison 115

12 The Poison Book 128

13 Poisoned in the Fields 139

14 A Ban 148

15 The Birds 161

16 Tobacco 176

17 The Hearings 185

18 Destruction 197

19 The Ban 205

20 Triana 210

21 Assessing Risk 221

Part III

22 Settling 237

23 Hand-Me-Down Poisons 248

24 Nested Study 256

25 Disruption 265

26 Delaney Falls 275

27 Bring Back DDT 287

28 Timing Makes the Poison 304

Epilogue 317

Acknowledgments 327

Source Notes 331

Selected Sources and Further Reading 355

Index 373