The Gospel of Germs: Men, Women, and the Microbe in American Life

by Nancy Tomes

AIDS. Ebola. "Killer microbes." All around us the alarms are going off, warning of the danger of new, deadly diseases. And yet, as Nancy Tomes reminds us in her absorbing book, this is really nothing new. A remarkable work of medical and cultural history, The Gospel of Germs takes us back to the first great "germ panic" in American history, which peaked in the early 1900s, to explore the origins of our modern disease consciousness.

Little more than a hundred years ago, ordinary Americans had no idea that many deadly ailments were the work of microorganisms, let alone that their own behavior spread such diseases. The Gospel of Germs shows how the revolutionary findings of late nineteenth-century bacteriology made their way from the laboratory to the lavatory and kitchen, with public health reformers spreading the word and women taking up the battle on the domestic front. Drawing on a wealth of advice books, patent applications, advertisements, and oral histories, Tomes traces the new awareness of the microbe as it radiated outward from middle-class homes into the world of American business and crossed the lines of class, gender, ethnicity, and race.

Just as we take some of the weapons in this germ war for granted--fixtures as familiar as the white porcelain toilet, the window screen, the refrigerator, and the vacuum cleaner--so we rarely think of the drastic measures deployed against disease in the dangerous old days before antibiotics. But, as Tomes notes, many of the hygiene rules first popularized in those days remain the foundation of infectious disease control today. Her work offers a timely look into the history of our long-standing obsession with germs, its impact on twentieth-century culture and society, and its troubling new relevance to our own lives.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, History Of Medicine, Science, Health, History Of Science, American History

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-researched look at the history of how germs have affected American life. Tomes covers germ life in America from 1870 through the 1930s with an Epilogue that covers AIDS in the 80s and 90s. The book is broken up into three main areas: the emergence of germs and disease from the 1870s to the 1890s, the understanding and scientific research and response from the 1890s-1920s, and the ways in which protecting and sanitizing American life advanced from the 1920s through the 1930s.

This is far from a heavy discourse in scientific germ analysis, rather Tomes looks at how germs and diseases like typhoid and typhus affected American life and culture. As scientists and doctors came to understand bacteria and germs, as well as how particular diseases spread, Americans altered their lifestyles to become cleaner and more sanitary. With these changes, new technologies and habits were created to keep Americans safe. Tomes covers the advent of the porcelain toilet bowl and flushing water closets to keep waste out of public drinking systems, shorter hemlines for women to keep dirt off clothes, windows screens to keep away flies that spread disease, to manufactured sanitary products. With the advent of these products came changes in advertising that touted their health and sanitary benefits.

A very readable book that is as much about the history of American culture as it is about germs and medical theories.

[Micah Rojo · Rating 5 out of 5]

i often come to books with hopes for what they will be about, and how they will address these subjects. More often than not it’s about something different, or goes about it in a different manner that i had hoped. this is not a bad thing, it’s often a good thing really.

but this book was exactly what i was hoping for. it was truly a wonderful and enlightening read. nancy tomes does history how i would like to do history. along with being education it was also aspirational.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting history on the impact of the germ theory on health, culture and fashion, starting in the late 1800s. I always thought ~ a hundred years ago that ladies started wearing shorter skirts and men shaved their mustaches and beards due to a desire to look more "modern' (or in the ladies's case, to be able to be more physically active without being encumbered by long skirts) and not because long skirts and facial hair were considered be "germ magnets". Also interesting was the rise of settlement houses, whose workers taught recent immigrants in big cities basic hygiene, and Agriculture extension programs whose workers focused on food safety (keeping barns clean, canning food safely, etc.). And as may be expected, women were big drivers in promoting this information due to society's expectation that they were the keepers of the household.

[Kayla Valerie Horne · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a required reading for school, and I will never read it again. I’m not much of a history person, so that’s probably why I thought it was so dry.

[Marc-Anthony Macon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is miles better than anyone would expect. What a fascinating read!

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

The notion of germs spreading disease acquired currency in the late 19th century. Public-health efforts focused on better plumbing, to avoid fecal contamination of water supplies, and general cleanliness. I was amused to read that toilets were designed to flush thoroughly, something I envy given the current fad for low-flow "green" toilets that often require repeated flushing. Changes promoted to promote cleanliness included shortening women's skirts, shaving off facial hair and reducing the clutter of Victorian-era interior design. I'd thought they'd been mere matters of fashion. A cleaner house could be achieved by the middle and upper classes, but the unintended effect was to make the housewife feel guilty if, despite all her scrubbing, a family member still got sick. The poor performed many services for the middle and upper classes, but in their own unhygienic dwellings. Improving the lot of the working poor, to reduce their rates of contagious illness, was presented, in the early 20th century, as a way to protect the health of the middle and upper classes. It's good for the modern reader to be reminded of the scourge of tuberculosis, a very common disease at the time.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this social history of microbes, Tomes explores how germ theory revolutionized the scientific beliefs and everyday life of Americans in the nineteenth century. As she demonstrates, with interesting case studies written in delightfully legible prose, the gospel of germs resulted in a religiously zealous conversion in American life, including class-based obsessions with cleanliness, the rise of antiseptic minimalism and sanitation in home design and decor (particularly in the bathroom), changes in skirt length and facial hair, and most poignantly, changes in the responsibilities of public health citizenship at the individual and organizational level to stop the spread of disease. These changing health beliefs revealed the cracks in class, gender, and race relations that continue today in an age of super-germs, from antibiotic resistant tuberculosis to AIDS.

[Mathew Powers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I honestly thought I would hate this book, simply because I imagined the content would read much like a dry medical journal. Wow, was I wrong! This is a social and cultural history of the U.S, using the response to germs and the fear of disease as the inspiration for social and cultural change. The writing is fantastic and the material is incredibly interesting.

I only with the title of the book (and the chapters, honestly) were different. I think more would enjoy this book if the title didn't allude to something different than what this book is actually about.

Really impressed by this book.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the better books on disease I've read. Tomes focuses on the social and cultural shifts brought about by the adoption of the germ theory of disease. It is very perceptive and picks up certain subtle changes in the tone and emphasis of the "gospel of germs" that a less careful review would have missed, particularly in reference to the lingering sanitationism that survived well into the early 20th century.

[Emily Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is the masterpiece of what i enjoy. written with ease, and with fantastic biobliographies and notes: please read this book--about public health in the era of the germ.