102 books
—
55 voters
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “On Immunity: An Inoculation” as Want to Read:
On Immunity: An Inoculation
by
Upon becoming a new mother, Eula Biss addresses a chronic condition of fear--fear of the government, the medical establishment, and what is in your child's air, food, mattress, medicine, and vaccines. She finds that you cannot immunize your child, or yourself, from the world.
In this bold, fascinating book, Biss investigates the metaphors and myths surrounding our conceptio ...more
In this bold, fascinating book, Biss investigates the metaphors and myths surrounding our conceptio ...more
Get A Copy
Hardcover, 205 pages
Published
September 30th 2014
by Graywolf Press
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30

Start your review of On Immunity: An Inoculation

Just lovely: so thoughtful and empathetic and intellectually wide-ranging. I've often wondered why people--privileged, educated people, no less--choose not to vaccinate their children, disregarding scientific evidence and social responsibility. I've especially wondered why this position seems so unassailable, why even people I consider friends are so closed to discussion on this one topic although they are open-minded about so much else.
Eula Biss bridges the gap, exposes the power of irrational ...more
Eula Biss bridges the gap, exposes the power of irrational ...more

A meditation on American culture's conception of illness, On Immunity takes on the misinformation and paranoia surrounding vaccination. In precise and moving prose, Eula Biss tracks the global history of immunization, critiques the act of describing public and private health through militaristic metaphors, reflects on her experience of motherhood, considers the ways in which cultural cornerstones such as Dracula represent disease, and deconstructs common arguments against vaccination. The short
...more

This book isn't what I thought. I expected a historical record of the development of vaccines as well as a debate about whether or not parents should vaccinate their children and I got that -- for the first few chapters. Then Biss launched into a serious of personal essays about the birth of her son, taking him for shots and obsessing about the transfusion she had to get following labor. Honestly, the book should have been called "Transfusion" because she never shut up about it. You'd think no o
...more

Those of us who identify as what is called "pro-vax"--parents who not only vaccinate their children, but who feel passionately about it--are not exactly shrinking violets. Frankly, we can't afford to be--although the vast majority of parents vaccinate their children, we do it as a matter of course for the most part, and do not feel a driving need to speak up about having done so, any more than we brag about taking our kids to the dentist. However, this silence has allowed a vocal and dangerous m
...more

On Immunity: An Inoculation
Eula Biss, the author of "On Immunization: An Inoculation" is the daughter of a poet and a doctor. She is herself a poet and a renowned essayist, this creates a seemingly absurd but interesting background that I think allows her to bring a unique perspective to an issue that could be otherwise tedious and dull.
Before reading this book, I never considered that the subject of immunizations was as complex and vast as it is. But as I learned our seemingly never endin ...more

Eula Biss, the author of "On Immunization: An Inoculation" is the daughter of a poet and a doctor. She is herself a poet and a renowned essayist, this creates a seemingly absurd but interesting background that I think allows her to bring a unique perspective to an issue that could be otherwise tedious and dull.
Before reading this book, I never considered that the subject of immunizations was as complex and vast as it is. But as I learned our seemingly never endin ...more

There was a lot of very informative and insightful material in On Immunity. I liked the section focused on perceptions of risk, where the belief of the validity of a particular risk by many people in society is often at odds with quantifiable facts. I also enjoyed the metaphorical comparisons that Eula Biss makes in our language and our exaggerated scientific studies, both of which contribute to our general fear of vaccinations. But, I felt the book didn't quite work for me. My biggest problem i
...more

This book is a collection of essays from the author's perspective as a doctor's daughter and a mother. It informs the reader about immunity, viruses, history of some diseases, clinical trials and vaccination. It also explains the concept of herd immunity and the process involved in finding a vaccine for a disease. I found this book very relevant to the current crisis of coronavirus.
This book does not focus only on hard science. It sheds light on how healthcare impacts, as well as gets impacted b ...more
This book does not focus only on hard science. It sheds light on how healthcare impacts, as well as gets impacted b ...more

Eula Biss isn’t a scientist; she’s an award-winning non-fiction writer and a mother. But based on On Immunity: An Inoculation, she’s clearly done copious amounts of research. The book is a personal, impressionistic, fascinating look at the history of immunity, from those 18th century English milkmaids with cowpox who miraculously found themselves immune to smallpox to the crazy (and dangerous) theories of celebrities like Jenny McCarthy.
Biss has a poet’s ear, and recognizes all the connotations ...more
Biss has a poet’s ear, and recognizes all the connotations ...more

Wow, not what I expected. I agree with Rebecca's review below. I was wanting a more factual/historical read, but instead this book was ALL OVER THE PLACE. The chapters weren't arranged chronologically, or in any logical way whatsoever. You start a new chapter where she talks about when her son was born, but in the previous chapter he was 4 years old. She talks way too much about vaccinating her son, her father being a doctor, and a blood transfusion she once received. The title should be more li
...more

Dec 05, 2014
Jeremiah
rated it
did not like it
Recommends it for:
Anyone looking to regret reading a book.
Recommended to Jeremiah by:
Entertainment Weekly (I should have known better)
Shelves:
bound-toilet-paper
Thank you to Eula Biss for pushing me to return to goodreads. I felt as though this was the only place I could properly voice my disappointment in this book. As focused as a broken telescope I have to wonder with what scandalous info she blackmailed her editor. Her use of metaphors are like a clean-up hitter shooting a three point shot during the superbowl and coming up short only to get an icing call on the final lap. ...or should I say it is like a vampire quoting Sontag but only to support Ki
...more

When she first became a mother, professor and essayist Eula Biss took the opportunity to reconsider inoculation. She’d never given it much thought before, but in an American culture of paranoia about everything from bird flu to food additives, it was impossible not to ask what risks she was exposing her son to, and whether they were worth it. In a wide-ranging cultural history reminiscent of Susan Sontag’s AIDS and Its Metaphors, she delves into the facts, myths and metaphors surrounding immuniz
...more

This is a thoughtful discussion of illness and immunity that pays particular attention to the controversies surrounding vaccines. And there is no doubt the author invested a great deal of research and thinking in this. Be warned, however, that it is less straightforward narrative than a bricolage of her own memories, readings and musings, which can be, at times, difficult. For example, early in the book, Biss moves from Kierkegaard, to the Doppler effect, to O negative blood and then to the idea
...more

Despite the fact that this book has been deemed one of the best non-fiction books of 2014, it completely took me by surprise. By combining historical information and personal essays, Biss takes on the hot button topic of vaccinations and brings it to a level that can appeal to anyone. Plus she is able to take the idea of vampires and our cultural history with those creatures and integrate them into our current cultural fear of vaccinations. Without shaming people who may be wary of vaccines and
...more

Rating 6* out of 5. I have never read anything like this in my life. I am not talking about the subject in itself, because actually none of the facts presented here were new to me. I have read about them before. What is different is how Eula Biss pieces together fact and mythology (Greek and vampirical) together with her own experiences as a first time mother to make a case for vaccination. She does this so gently, so expertly, that surely not even the anti-vaccination faction could take offense
...more

I can't reveal much about this brilliant personal critique of America's culture of doubt surrounding vaccines, because I'm getting paid (for once) to write about it elsewhere (the next edition of the American Writers reference series, not due out until 2016). But I will echo what others are saying -- Biss has inherited the critical inquiry skills of Susan Sontag and Joan Didion and merged them with the research focus of Rebecca Solnit. The whole short book (164 pages, followed by 40 pages of end
...more

4.5 stars -- this was a very emotional read for me, one that I almost resented. But ultimately, I could not deny the beauty of the writing or the thoughtfulness of Biss' consideration of ourselves as bodies interconnected to one another in so many different ways.
...more

The author tries to weave a story through hard hitting research and personal experiences. The intergenerational approach added with current political environment over vaccination makes it an interesting read.
The areas where the book stands out is the precise combination of science of vaccination added with other aspects related to vaccination. The author is able to give out the historical data along with some of the personal anxieties which surround the individuals. Another exciting aspect is t ...more
The areas where the book stands out is the precise combination of science of vaccination added with other aspects related to vaccination. The author is able to give out the historical data along with some of the personal anxieties which surround the individuals. Another exciting aspect is t ...more

“Immunity is a shared space – a garden we tend together.”
Eula Biss has written a fine argument and defense for the importance of vaccination in our society.
When I was in high school, we had a contest between other school debate teams called The Lincoln-Douglas Debates, named for the famous candidates in the 1858 Senate race in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. Even though Lincoln didn’t win the debate in 1858, his opinions won the popular vote, and the debates helped launch his car ...more
Eula Biss has written a fine argument and defense for the importance of vaccination in our society.
When I was in high school, we had a contest between other school debate teams called The Lincoln-Douglas Debates, named for the famous candidates in the 1858 Senate race in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. Even though Lincoln didn’t win the debate in 1858, his opinions won the popular vote, and the debates helped launch his car ...more

This isn't a science book. It's not a book about health care. It's not even a book about vaccination. Instead, On Immunity is a confusing collection of essays with no cohesive theme. Biss cycles between motherhood and literary analysis and never brings it all together.
With the measles outbreak splashed across every newspaper, I picked up a copy of On Immunity, aiming to educate myself on vaccination, and expecting a primer on vaccines and vaccine culture. I was disappointed to discover that this ...more
With the measles outbreak splashed across every newspaper, I picked up a copy of On Immunity, aiming to educate myself on vaccination, and expecting a primer on vaccines and vaccine culture. I was disappointed to discover that this ...more

I love Eula Biss. Notes from No Man's Land: American Essays is soooo important to me and so stylistically impressive. This is different--one structured narrative rather than an essay collection, but she does trace different topics related to the history of vaccinations and anti-vaccinations.
Ugh she's just so SMART and so good at making connections between things. And I love that she writes openly from her perspective as a new mother, a privileged mother, who can understand the panic that anti-v ...more
Ugh she's just so SMART and so good at making connections between things. And I love that she writes openly from her perspective as a new mother, a privileged mother, who can understand the panic that anti-v ...more

When I was pregnant with my daughter, I was obsessed with what I consumed. I didn't just give up wine; I gave up chewing gum. I feared that my cups of early pregnancy green tea could cause spinal bifida; I meticulously removed the feta cheese from a dining hall sandwich, knowing that there was virtually no chance that institutional dairy was unpasteurized. In "On Immunity," Eula Biss explores our desire to spare our children the toxicity and mortality that is their lot, and she is unsparing in h
...more

If you are sick of getting quarantine recommendations for The Plague and The Road, this is the book for you.
I picked it up in January while I was in Boston, read the first half of it in a frenzy—inspired, interested, oddly repulsed. The book is about vaccination, immunity, and public health and all the discussions of illness and needles felt nauseating at first.
Now, returning to it after the outbreak of COVID-19, it is prophetic and helpful. It shows you in artful writing what and how we shoul ...more
I picked it up in January while I was in Boston, read the first half of it in a frenzy—inspired, interested, oddly repulsed. The book is about vaccination, immunity, and public health and all the discussions of illness and needles felt nauseating at first.
Now, returning to it after the outbreak of COVID-19, it is prophetic and helpful. It shows you in artful writing what and how we shoul ...more

The praise this book is getting is well deserved.

This book is very readable and has lots of interesting information to offer. Biss explains where anti-vaccinators are coming from, their fears and concerns. I think I understand that a little better now, even though I don't agree with it in the slightest. Biss brings in lots of historical examples of how people have tried to prevent disease. The discussion of the weaponisation of disease and vaccination was fascinating and horrible to read about.
Biss also refutes most of the claims and fears of ...more
Biss also refutes most of the claims and fears of ...more

I remain immune to the hype.
There's some brilliant writing in here awaintg an editor. Is it a commentary on the current immunity scare? A history of inoculation? A journey into the subtle class boundaries of North America? Who knows. It's all of those things, but in no particular order and with no obvious object. Now, I know that post-modern post-structuralist writing values the amorphous subjective (and perhaps the also the even more elusive intersubjective) but readers still deserve, at the mi ...more
There's some brilliant writing in here awaintg an editor. Is it a commentary on the current immunity scare? A history of inoculation? A journey into the subtle class boundaries of North America? Who knows. It's all of those things, but in no particular order and with no obvious object. Now, I know that post-modern post-structuralist writing values the amorphous subjective (and perhaps the also the even more elusive intersubjective) but readers still deserve, at the mi ...more

What a waste of time this book was. The only positive thing is that it is short. The problem? It has no thesis whatsoever. I still do not know what all the ranting was about. It talks a great deal about vaccines and why people are afraid of them, about Dracula, and about her son, but I still don’t know what she was trying to get at. She goes on and on about her son, his birth, his vaccines, his allergies, etc. Please! You should just go ahead and write a memoir about your tendencies as an overpr
...more

I read this as part of my Book Riot Read Harder challenge (it fulfills the "a-book-published-by-an-indie-press" requirement). I didn't think I'd like it as much as I did. I'm much more "into" fiction and so I was worried this book was going to be too dry. It wasn't. It was filled with all kinds of stats and facts, of course, but there was also a lot of personal details about the author's life and young son so that made it more readable and identifiable. I'd recommend the book to everyone but I t
...more

Belletristic approach to the current vaccine debate. Eula Biss weaves history, philosophy of science, current events, and personal memoir into this excellent piece on the cultural implications of immunology and disease. Susan Sontag, Donna Haraway, and Bram Stoker are consulted along with contemporary scientists and public health advocates. Beautiful writing, indeed. Highly recommended.

Oct 03, 2016
Julie Ehlers
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
science-and-tech,
nonfiction
This book was so, so interesting and important. I can't stop thinking about it. I will go so far as to say that everyone should read it. I almost docked a star because the way the endnotes are set up was really annoying, but there's just too much good stuff here not to give it the 5-star deluxe treatment.
...more
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Eula Biss holds a BA in nonfiction writing from Hampshire College and an MFA in nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa. She is currently an Artist in Residence at Northwestern University, where she teaches nonfiction writing, and she is a founding editor of Essay Press, a new press dedicated to innovative nonfiction. Her essays have recently appeared in The Best Creative Nonfiction and the
...more
Articles featuring this book
Her Favorite Books About Vaccination: The author of On Immunity shares five books that informed her critique of the myths and fears surrounding...
22 likes · 4 comments
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Wealthier countries have the luxury of entertaining fears the rest of the world cannot afford.”
—
20 likes
“That so many of us find it entirely plausible that a vast network of researchers and health officials and doctors worldwide would willfully harm children for money is evidence of what capitalism is really taking from us. Capitalism has already impoverished the working people who generate wealth for others. And capitalism has already impoverished us culturally, robbing unmarketable art of its value. But when we begin to see the pressures of capitalism as innate laws of human motivation, when we begin to believe that everyone is owned, then we are truly impoverished.”
—
19 likes
More quotes…