Anthrax: The Investigation of a Deadly Outbreak Paperback - 1999

First line

Tuesday, June 2, 1992. After a long transatlantic flight from New York,our research team arrives in the new post-Soviet Russia, a nation that six months before did not exist.

From the rear cover

"Jeanne Guillemin offers a riveting account of tracking down the causes of a public health calamity and penetrating layer upon layer of secrecy and obfuscation. She persuasively combines meticulous attention to scientific detail with alertness to the voice of those whose lives were changed by the crisis." --Sissela Bok, author of Secrets: On the Ethics of Concealment and Revelation and Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life

"Guillemin's book is a triple treat: it is a gripping detective story, a vivid portrayal of non-Moscow Russian life, and a standard-setting display of the scientific method at work. and there is a bonus: the reader will learn all about anthrax, the most likely weapon if biological warfare is ever waged." --Paul Doty, Director Emeritus, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University

"This book is an absorbing tale of an investigation into the anthrax epidemic that struck the Russian city of Sverdlovsk twenty years ago. But it can also be read as an important parable for our time because it deals with chemical and biological agents that the world is drawn to and yet does not really know how to handle." --Kai Erikson, author of A New Species of Trouble

"Anthrax is the best book of medical detection since Berton Roueché's Eleven Blue Men. Tracing her story from Cambridge to Yekaterinburg and back again, Guillemin weaves savvy epidemiology, Russian history, and American science into a compelling first-person narrative. An instant classic, Anthrax is not only a distinguished account of fieldwork in social science, but also a work of literature that addresses the larger issue of human survival in the face of global risk." --Gerald Weissmann, M.D., author of Darwin's Audubon and Democracy and DNA