The Secret History of the War on Cancer:

From a National Book Award finalist and author of When Smoke Ran Like Water comes a searing, haunting and deeply personal account of the so-called war on cancer.

The war on cancer set out to find, treat, and cure a disease. Left untouched were many of the things known to cause cancer, including tobacco, the workplace, radiation, or the global environment. Proof of how the world in which we live and work affects whether we get cancer was either overlooked or suppressed.

This has been no accident.

The War on Cancer was run by leaders of industries that made cancer-causing products and sometimes also profited from drugs and technologies for finding and treating the disease. Filled with compelling personalities and never-before-revealed information, The Secret History of the War on Cancer shows how we began fighting the wrong war, with the wrong weapons, against the wrong enemies, a legacy that persists to this day.

This is the gripping story of a major public health effort diverted and distorted for private gain.

"Davis writes with passion, driven by the conviction that premature deaths among her family members resulted from exposure to industrial toxins….a powerful call to action; recommended for most libraries."—Library Journal