Ten Drugs cover art

Ten Drugs

How Plants, Powders, and Pills Have Shaped the History of Medicine

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Ten Drugs

By: Thomas Hager
Narrated by: Angelo Di Loreto
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About this listen

Behind every landmark drug is a story. It could be an oddball researcher’s genius insight, a catalyzing moment in geopolitical history, a new breakthrough technology, or an unexpected but welcome side effect discovered during clinical trials. Piece together these stories, as Thomas Hager does in this remarkable, century-spanning history, and you can trace the evolution of our culture and the practice of medicine.

Beginning with opium, the “joy plant,” which has been used for 10,000 years, Hager tells a captivating story of medicine. His subjects include the largely forgotten female pioneer who introduced smallpox inoculation to Britain, the infamous knockout drops, the first antibiotic, which saved countless lives, the first antipsychotic, which helped empty public mental hospitals, Viagra, statins, and the new frontier of monoclonal antibodies. This is a deep, wide-ranging, and wildly entertaining book.

©2019 Thomas Hager (P)2019 Audible, Inc. History History & Commentary History & Philosophy Medicine & Health Care Industry Science World Medicine Pharmacology Mental Health Health

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All stars
Most relevant
What a fantastic book about the history of medicine. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about early use of opioids (laudanum), pain killers, antibiotics, obituates and more. The early chapters look at the trade of drugs - the initial excitement about their discovery, the politics, followed by the negative side effects. He looked at who used to push drugs, who pushes drugs now. (Historically users often tended to be the well off and middle classes with medical professionals extolling their benefits). There is a very interesting part that seems to rewrite the history I was taught about smallpox and vaccinations. It includes the pioneering work of Edward Jenner, but then we hear that actually in Turkey, vaccinations were happening a long time before he came along!

There is a chapter about statins, where the author, Thomas Hager, looks at their history, who benefits and the risks they may pose. Using his own personal experience he argues that deciding whether or not to take them is not as clear as the pharmaceutical industry leads us to believe.

The book meanders through history, the breakthroughs, euphoria, the tragic consequences of unknown side effects through poor or ineffective drug trialing. The pattern throughout history becomes apparent that drugs start off being celebrated for their amazing properties and only later, usually when it’s too late comes the realisation that there are usually major negative side-effects.

As a historical overview I enjoyed this a lot.

The history of medicine - really interesting

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I found this to be a really interesting overview of how some medicines came to be. It is easy to listen to the narrator.

Really interesting

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Easy for the layman to understand.
Particularly found the history accounts of drugs and medicines fascinating.

Very informative

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Anyone interested in pharmaceuticals and the history and use of drugs in general will enjoy this book. Ironically, I learned that the excellent narrator died of a heart condition very young whilst reading the section on heart medicine.

Very interesting and engaging

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Interestingly narrated, the book gives an inspiring account of how some drugs were found and how they work, whilst dealing with the social, economic and political issues surrounding them.

Inspiring and relevant

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