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American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access originally published online on September 21, 2005
American Journal of Epidemiology 2005 162(9):917-918; doi:10.1093/aje/kwi296
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American Journal of Epidemiology Copyright © 2005 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health All rights reserved; printed in U.S.A.

Book Review

Archie Cochrane: Back to the Front and A Life in Public Health: An Insider's Retrospective

Haroutune K. Armenian

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205

Archie Cochrane: Back to the Front
Edited by F. Xavier Bosch and Richard Molas
ISBN 84-607-8958-6, Published Privately, Barcelona, Spain (E-mail: cris@ico.scs.es, Fax: 34-93-260-7787, Website: http://www.cochrane.org/docs/orderformarchiecochranebacktothefront.doc), 2003, 328 pp., $92.55

A Life in Public Health: An Insider's Retrospective
By Lester Breslow
ISBN 0-8261-2714-2, Springer Publishing Company, New York, New York (Telephone: 877-687-7476, Fax: 212-941-7842, Website: http://www.springerpub.com/), 2004, 234 pp., $46.95

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

These biographies of two renowned epidemiologists and public health leaders provide different perspectives of the same historical period. The Cochrane book is a compendium of reminiscences and articles written by colleagues and students of the great epidemiologist, while the Breslow book is an autobiography, "an insider's retrospective," as the author calls it.

A biographic book is as interesting as the life it tries to portray or present; here, we are dealing with two epidemiologist–public health professionals who had very interesting lives. A biography is also a personal story, and story telling has been at the basis of literary expression from time immemorial. Thus, compared with other books in epidemiology, our evaluation of a biographic book needs also to consider the literary merits of the product.

In a way, a biography provides an opportunity for creative expression without compromising its factual validity. A biography is successful to the extent that it . . . [Full Text of this Article]

THE COCHRANE BOOK

THE BRESLOW BOOK

SOME COMMON GROUND


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