Protecting America's health : [electronic resource] the FDA, business, and one hundred years of regulation / Philip J. Hilts.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 373-378) and index.

Introduction: the beginning of regulation -- Prologue: the challenge -- Dr. Wiley's time -- Commerce, commerce, commerce -- The progressive era -- The law succeeds, and fails -- Capitalism in crisis -- The birth of the modern pharmaceutical trade -- New drugs, new problems -- The industry ascendant -- The grand bargain -- Thalidomide -- Science meets policy -- Partisan politics -- The limits of policy -- Deregulation -- The medical officer -- The modern plague -- A progressive -- Drug lag revisited -- An anti-regulatory campaign -- The argument in joined -- Old-fashioned politics -- Epilogue: Greed and goodness.

Provides a detailed history of the Food and Drug Administration as it evolved into America's most important regulatory agency, designed to protect the nation from hazardous medicines and food products.