Toxic Exposures: Mustard Gas and the Health Consequences of World War II in the United States

Abstract

Human subjects, cancer treatments, environmental threats, chemical warfare … these are all current hot topics, and Susan L. Smith manages to incorporate them all into her book on the king of chemical weapons: mustard gas. While there are more fatal and sophisticated gases today, mustard was the most advanced gas used widely in the First World War, anticipated to be the core gas of the Second World War (despite the fact that gas did not play the role both sides expected in the conflict), and has proven its power on battlefields in the post-war period, including at least once in Syria. Smith’s rich monograph explores the growing historical sub-fields of chemical warfare, human subject experimentation and environmental pollution by demonstrating that the American war effort hurt (and may continue to injure) the very people it tried to protect with chemical weapons, all justified by claims of national security. Smith’s style is succinct, yet in 130 pages she presents an overview of the damage chemical weapons have caused off the battlefield and the ‘toxic legacies of war’ (p. viii). This book fits squarely into the war and society field, and the insights she offers can be applied not only to the Second World War and chemical warfare studies, but also to contemporary medicine, environmental sustainability, social history, history of medicine, and veterans affairs. Smith’s book is one that will appeal to university students because of its clean organization as well as the clear foundational information she offers to support her deeper points, and it will interest professional scholars for its integration of current literature as well as the ties her story provides between multiple historical fields. It is a monograph that retains a detached tone on hot topics while still making the issues at hand feel personally relevant.