This terrific book challenges the assumptions of white male patriarchy, and does so with such inventive, eagle-eyed perspicacity. Fedwa Malti-Douglas is of course absolutely right when she observes that the assumptions about gender in the Starr report betray and dis/cover chilling aspects of the United States. Especially important is her analysis of the Clinton-Vernon Jordan relationship, and the thoughtless deployment of Betty Currie as a recording device unable to speak for herself. As a radical who empathizes with the Other, I am combatting the criminalizing of independent thought in this country, of which the Starr Report is a typical and, alas, familiar example.

This book makes the history of medicine, especially blood, interesting, and accessible to anyone. It also exposes the blood industry, GOOD and BAD, with names and dates of the people who moved it along: the medics in World Wars who risked their lives, the brilliant and tempermental researchers, and the greedy. Starr gives you well-documented facts and lets the reader decide, as a good writer should, who is the bad guy. This book doesn't tug as much at your heartstrings as Bad Blood: Crisis in the American Red Cross by Judith Reitman, but that's by far an advantage. She would have you believe that just because people died (of AIDS, and Hepatitis), there must be someone in the blood industry at fault. There certainly is some fault to go around, but this book helps you decide who and why there is fault, and tells both sides of the story without leaving Reitman's huge empty gaps in the evidence.

I originally took this book out of my local library to do a research project for my final exam in History. Since the culmination of my research, I have rented this book three more times in to read it for my own enjoyment. The topic of blood is purely fascinating. Starr has brilliantly written a book that informs the reader of important issues, as well as being entertaining and thought provoking. The reader gets a profound understanding of the importance of blood that spans from the 17th century, though World Wars, and through current problems with AIDS in the world's blood supply. I have never read a nonfiction book that has kept my attention as acutely as this one. This book is truly one that you'll want to keep.

Who knew that a book about transfusions and blood in medical history would turn out to be such a fascinating read? Starr works from the 17th century (with occasional visits to even earlier times) forward to the current environment of blood as monetary commodity.

Scintillating, thought-provoking, disturbing, and even amusing, the storytelling does justice to the story. Brilliant people discovered amazing things about this liquid that keeps us alive, and Starr encapsulates the many discoveries extremely well.

If you enjoy social history writing at all, you will likely appreciate BLOOD: AN EPIC HISTORY OF MEDICINE AND COMMERCE.