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At War Within: The Double-Edged Sword of Immunity
In the seventeenth century, smallpox reigned as the world's worst killer. Luck, more than anything else, decided who would live and who would die. That is, until Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, an English aristocrat, moved to Constantinople and noticed the Turkish practice of "ingrafting" or inoculation, which, she wrote, made "the small- pox...entirely harmless." Convinced by what she witnessed, she allowed her six-year-old son to be ingrafted, and the treatment was a complete success--the young Montagu enjoyed lifelong immunity from smallpox. Lady Montagu's discovery would, however, remain a quiet one; it would be almost 150 years before inoculation (in the more modern form of vaccination) would become widely accepted while the medical community struggled to understand the way our bodies defend themselves against disease.
William Clark's At War Within takes us on a fascinating tour through the immune system, examining the history of its discovery, the ways in which it protects us, and how it may bring its full force to bear at the wrong time or in the wrong place. Scientists have only gradually come to realize that this elegant defense system not only has the potential to help, as in the case of smallpox, but also the potential to do profound harm in health problems ranging from allergies to AIDS, and from organ transplants to cancer. Dr. Clark discusses the myriad of medical problems involving the immune system, and he systematically explains each one. For example, in both tuberculosis and AIDS, the underlying pathogens take up residence within the immune system itself, something Clark compares to having a prowler take up residence in your house, crawling around through the walls and ceilings while waiting to do you in. He discusses organ transplants, showing how the immune system can work far too
well, and touching on the heated ethical debate over the use of both primate and human organs. He explores the mind's powerful ability to influence the performance of the immune system; and the speculation that women, because they have developed more powerful immune systems in connection with childbearing, are more prone than men to contract certain diseases such as lupus. In a fascinating chapter on AIDS, arguably the most deadly epidemic seen on Earth since the smallpox, Clark explains how the disease originated and the ways in which it operates. And, in each section, we learn about the most recent medical breakthroughs.
At first glance, it may appear that our immune system faces daunting odds; it must learn to successfully fend off, not thousands, but millions of different types of microbes. Fortunately, according to Clark, it would be almost impossible to imagine a more elegant strategy for our protection than the one chosen by our immune system, and his At War Within provides a thorough and engaging explanation of this most complex and delicately balanced mechanism.
William Clark's At War Within takes us on a fascinating tour through the immune system, examining the history of its discovery, the ways in which it protects us, and how it may bring its full force to bear at the wrong time or in the wrong place. Scientists have only gradually come to realize that this elegant defense system not only has the potential to help, as in the case of smallpox, but also the potential to do profound harm in health problems ranging from allergies to AIDS, and from organ transplants to cancer. Dr. Clark discusses the myriad of medical problems involving the immune system, and he systematically explains each one. For example, in both tuberculosis and AIDS, the underlying pathogens take up residence within the immune system itself, something Clark compares to having a prowler take up residence in your house, crawling around through the walls and ceilings while waiting to do you in. He discusses organ transplants, showing how the immune system can work far too
well, and touching on the heated ethical debate over the use of both primate and human organs. He explores the mind's powerful ability to influence the performance of the immune system; and the speculation that women, because they have developed more powerful immune systems in connection with childbearing, are more prone than men to contract certain diseases such as lupus. In a fascinating chapter on AIDS, arguably the most deadly epidemic seen on Earth since the smallpox, Clark explains how the disease originated and the ways in which it operates. And, in each section, we learn about the most recent medical breakthroughs.
At first glance, it may appear that our immune system faces daunting odds; it must learn to successfully fend off, not thousands, but millions of different types of microbes. Fortunately, according to Clark, it would be almost impossible to imagine a more elegant strategy for our protection than the one chosen by our immune system, and his At War Within provides a thorough and engaging explanation of this most complex and delicately balanced mechanism.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
2 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
About the author
William R. Clark
36 books6 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
Other authors publishing under this name are:
William R. Clark
William R. Clark
William R. Clark is Professor Emeritus of Immunology in the Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of a number of books about biology, immunology, and evolution, including Sex and the Origins of Death, A Means to an End: The Biological Basis of Aging and Death, and The New Healers: The Promise and Problems of Molecular Medicine in the Twenty-First Century.
Other authors publishing under this name are:
William R. Clark
William R. Clark
William R. Clark is Professor Emeritus of Immunology in the Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of a number of books about biology, immunology, and evolution, including Sex and the Origins of Death, A Means to an End: The Biological Basis of Aging and Death, and The New Healers: The Promise and Problems of Molecular Medicine in the Twenty-First Century.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 26, 2018
I thought this was a fascinating book about the miraculous immune system. I was amazed at all of the incredible abilities that the human body and mind can accomplish! It was a little dry. though, and sometimes it was tedious, but overall, I was enthralled.
January 12, 2015
Disappointing
Clark’s later text, Sex & The Origins Of Death, is one of the most remarkable books ever written, cover-to-cover an exhilarating revelation. So with great anticipation for At War Within, it was a sad surprise to find it become a bedtime sedative. Clark’s masterly command of vivid painting with words disappears almost entirely after chapter two and appears only sparsely before that. It is not without gems: “Like an army lashing out blindly against an unseen and unmeasured enemy, the immune system is capable of using excessive deadly force in the wrong place and time...” And this is the core subject of Clark’s book, how our marvelous, life-saving immune system can turn on us with deadly effect. (If there were an Intelligent Designer, this fact scarcely says anything positive for the designer’s intelligence.) Reminding us of chronic human foolishness, we find there was resistance to immunization because disease was one of God’s means for punishment of the wicked – applied equally to autoimmune disease in infants, whose transgression would be…? The bizarre ability of T-cells to command other cells to commit suicide is touched upon, but a more in-depth coverage of this fascinating “programmed cell death” awaits his text noted above – which was written 3 years later, so Clark improves immensely in short order. Incidentally, Clark notes that each human consumes about 30 tons of food in a lifetime (in his section on food allergies). Given over 7 billion humans, that’s over 200 billion tons of food consumed by humans every 70 years or so – no wonder we’re eating species into extinction. Mostly a rather dry history of immunology, perhaps it’s of greater interest to the practitioner than the general reader.
Clark’s later text, Sex & The Origins Of Death, is one of the most remarkable books ever written, cover-to-cover an exhilarating revelation. So with great anticipation for At War Within, it was a sad surprise to find it become a bedtime sedative. Clark’s masterly command of vivid painting with words disappears almost entirely after chapter two and appears only sparsely before that. It is not without gems: “Like an army lashing out blindly against an unseen and unmeasured enemy, the immune system is capable of using excessive deadly force in the wrong place and time...” And this is the core subject of Clark’s book, how our marvelous, life-saving immune system can turn on us with deadly effect. (If there were an Intelligent Designer, this fact scarcely says anything positive for the designer’s intelligence.) Reminding us of chronic human foolishness, we find there was resistance to immunization because disease was one of God’s means for punishment of the wicked – applied equally to autoimmune disease in infants, whose transgression would be…? The bizarre ability of T-cells to command other cells to commit suicide is touched upon, but a more in-depth coverage of this fascinating “programmed cell death” awaits his text noted above – which was written 3 years later, so Clark improves immensely in short order. Incidentally, Clark notes that each human consumes about 30 tons of food in a lifetime (in his section on food allergies). Given over 7 billion humans, that’s over 200 billion tons of food consumed by humans every 70 years or so – no wonder we’re eating species into extinction. Mostly a rather dry history of immunology, perhaps it’s of greater interest to the practitioner than the general reader.
July 14, 2013
Dry, but an excellent book.
March 18, 2016
Great book explaining the immune system and the power of the mind .
June 19, 2024
A comfortable introduction to immunology, a simple read containing essential knowledge.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews