The Emperor of All Maladies Summary – Siddhartha Mukherjee

The Emperor of All Maladies (2010)

A Biography of Cancer

by Siddhartha Mukherjee

The Emperor of All Maladies is a rich and deep biography of cancer, from its first documented appearance to our modern battles to understand and cure humanity's (current) second biggest killer - by physician, biologist and author, Siddhartha Mukherjee. (571 pages)

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The Emperor of All Maladies Summary

This publisher’s blurb comes from the Simon & Schuster paperback edition of The Emperor of All Maladies…

“The Emperor of All Maladies a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence.

Physician, researcher, and award-winning science writer, Siddhartha Mukherjee examines cancer with a cellular biologist’s precision, a historian’s perspective, and a biographer’s passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with—and perished from—for more than five thousand years.

The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance, but also of hubris, paternalism, and misperception. Mukherjee recounts centuries of discoveries, setbacks, victories, and deaths, told through the eyes of his predecessors and peers, training their wits against an infinitely resourceful adversary that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out “war against cancer.” The book reads like a literary thriller with cancer as the protagonist.

Riveting, urgent, and surprising, The Emperor of All Maladies provides a fascinating glimpse into the future of cancer treatments. It is an illuminating book that provides hope and clarity to those seeking to demystify cancer.”

The Emperor of All Maladies Contents

The Emperor of All Maladies has 8 main chapters…

1. Prologue
2. Part One: “Of blacke cholor, without boyling”
3. Part Two: An Impatient War
4. Part Three: “Will you turn me out if I can’t get better?”
5. Part Four: Prevention Is the Cure
6. Part Five: “A Distorted Version of Our Normal Selves”
7. Part Six: The Fruits of Long Endeavours
8. Atossa’s War

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