Landmark Ideas Series

Allan M. Brandt is the Amalie Moses Kass Professor of the History of Medicine and Professor of the History of Science.  He holds a joint appointment between the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Harvard Medical School.  Brandt served as Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences from 2008 to 2012.  He earned his undergraduate degree at Brandeis University and a Ph.D. in American History from Columbia University.  His work focuses on social and ethical aspects of health, disease, medical practices, and global health in the twentieth century.  Brandt is the author of No Magic Bullet:  A  Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States since 1880 (1987); and co-editor of Morality and Health (1997).  He has written on the social history of epidemic disease; the history of public health and health policy; and the history of human experimentation among other topics.  His book on the social and cultural history of cigarette smoking in the U.S., The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product that Defined America, was published by Basic Books in 2007 (paperback, 2009).   The book received the Bancroft Prize from Columbia University in 2008 and the Welch Medal from the American Association for the History of Medicine in 2011.  Brandt has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is currently writing about the impact stigma has on patients and health outcomes.