Includes bibliographical references (pages 285-345) and index.

Cancer in the breast, 1813 -- Pessimism and promise -- Taking responsibility for cancer -- Living at risk -- "Do not delay": the war against time -- "Prophets of doom": skeptics of the cancer establishment at mid-century -- Balancing hope, trust, and truth: Rachel Carson -- The rise of surveillance -- Crisis in prevention -- Breast cancer risk: "waiting for the axe to fall."

In the early nineteenth century in the United States, cancer in the breast was a rare disease. Now it seems that breast cancer is everywhere. Written by a medical historian who is also a doctor, Unnatural History tells how and why this happened. Rather than there simply being more disease, breast cancer has entered the bodies of so many American women and the concerns of nearly all the rest, mostly as a result of how we have detected, labeled, and responded to the disease. The book traces changing definitions and understandings of breast cancer, the experience of breast cancer sufferers, clinical and public health practices, and individual and societal fears.