Detailed history of U.S. social control of the criminal, poor, and mentally ill from colonial practices centered on human resources to "the age of the asylum," the Jacksonian era.

Publisher description: What does it mean to live in a time when medical science can not only cure the human body but also reshape it? How should we as individuals and as a society respond to new drugs and genetic technologies? Sheila and David Rothman address these questions with a singular blend of history and analysis, taking us behind the scenes to explain how scientific research, medical practice, drug company policies, and a quest for peak performance...