"Captain of All These Men of Death"

At the beginning of the 20th century, Ireland was one of the very few developed countries to be experiencing a rise in tuberculosis mortality, which was rapidly declining in the rest of the British Isles. In this book, the author traces the history of the disease from that point to the 1950s when mortality rates had fallen to a level commensurate with other developed countries. She explores the social and economic factors for the disparity, and examines if the history of the disease in Ireland can shed light on the nature of tuberculosis epidemics in general.