When the patent medicine Jamaica Ginger was tainted with a toxic chemical during the Great Depression, over 50,000 people in the USA suffered paralysis or death, leading to widespread disability and social stigma. Bringing together social, cultural, and political contexts, Stephen E. Mawdsley presents the first comprehensive history of Jamaica Ginger Paralysis. He argues that serious federal regulatory and policy failures during the 1920s created an opportunity for unscrupulous manufacturers to experiment with novel chemicals and adulterate the patent medicine. Although marginalised, survivors and their allies demonstrated resilience by raising awareness, forming collectives, lobbying the government, and attempting to destigmatize their condition. Drawing on a combination of oral history, disability studies, historical musicology, and social history methodologies, Mawdsley considers the agency of survivors and the pervasive representations of the outbreak in popular culture. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

‘Stephen Mawdsley does a masterful job taking a little-known but powerful story about (calculated) regulatory failure in America and expanding it. This work alters our ideas about patient advocacy, as well as compensatory damages, moving the date of both back a few decades.'

Gwen Kay - State University of New York at Oswego

‘Stephen Mawdsley's account of a nearly forgotten public health disaster, the toxic adulteration of Jamaican ginger, and its tragic results, is a deeply researched, sensitively written, and insightful exploration of institutional failure and its tragic outcomes. Connecting prohibition, government regulation, medical hierarchies, and the development in rehabilitation medicine, this book is a remarkable achievement.'

Dan Malleck - Brock University

‘Weaving together fascinating health stories and original archival research, Mawdsley's The Jake Walk Blues offers a scholarly blueprint for the health humanities in its carefully historicized analysis of popular culture, federal neglect, lived experience and collective resilience.'

Martin Halliwell - University of Leicester

‘This fascinating foray into Jamaica Ginger Paralysis offers the best in social history, with a real sensitivity to the voices of its victims and a probing analysis of JGP's place in the medical and cultural preoccupations of early 20th century America. It also offers a poignant case study in state oversight of food and drug safety.'

James Moran - University of Prince Edward Island