What is Dominique A. Tobbell reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Dominique A. Tobbell, author of Pills, Power, and Policy: The Struggle for Drug Reform in Cold War America and Its Consequences.

Her entry begins:

For fun reading over the Christmas break, I read Susan Orlean’s incredible Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend. I have always loved German shepherds; I grew up with one in England and am now the proud “parent” of a two-and-a-half old German shepherd with floppy ears. For this reason I couldn’t wait to pick up Susan Orlean’s book, despite the fact that having grown up in England I had never heard of Rin Tin Tin before. As luck would have it, a month before I was given the book as a gift, I had met the current Rin Tin Tin—Rin Tin Tin XII—at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport. Rin Tin Tin XII (or “Smith” as he is called by his family and friends) was about to board a flight to New York City to appear as Rin Tin Tin on a morning television show. I was literally star struck by his appearance at the airport and sheepishly asked if his owner would mind if I took a photo of him (she obliged and handed me one of Rinty’s business card). Needless to say, by the time I finally opened Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend my excitement and my expectations for the book were pretty high. Within a few pages, my expectations had been exceeded and my excitement soon led me to finish the first 100 pages within a couple of short hours. As I avidly read page after page of Orlean’s beautifully written text, it was impossible not to...[read on]

About Pills, Power, and Policy, from the publisher:

Since the 1950s, the American pharmaceutical industry has been heavily criticized for its profit levels, the high cost of prescription drugs, drug safety problems, and more, yet it has, together with the medical profession, staunchly and successfully opposed regulation. Pills, Power, and Policy offers a lucid history of how the American drug industry and key sectors of the medical profession came to be allies against pharmaceutical reform. It details the political strategies they have used to influence public opinion, shape legislative reform, and define the regulatory environment of prescription drugs. Untangling the complex relationships between drug companies, physicians, and academic researchers, the book provides essential historical context for understanding how corporate interests came to dominate American health care policy after World War II.

Learn more about the book and author at Dominique A. Tobbell's website.

Writers Read: Dominique A. Tobbell.

--Marshal Zeringue