The Great Secret: The Classified World War II Disaster that Launched the War on Cancer

On the night of December 2, 1943, the Luftwaffe bombed a critical Allied port in Bari, Italy, sinking seventeen ships and killing over a thousand servicemen and hundreds of civilians. Caught in the surprise air raid was the John Harvey, an American Liberty ship carrying a top-secret cargo of 2,000 mustard bombs to be used in retaliation if the Germans resorted to gas warfare. After young sailors began suddenly dying with mysterious symptoms, Lieutenant Colonel Stewart Alexander, a doctor and chemical weapons expert, was dispatched to investigate. He quickly diagnosed mustard gas exposure, which both Churchill and Eisenhower denied. But Alexander's breakthrough observations about the toxic effects of mustard on white blood cells, as well as the heroic perseverance of Colonel Cornelius P. Rhoads - a researcher and doctor as brilliant as he was arrogant and self-destructive - were instrumental in ushering in a new era of cancer research. The Great Secret is a remarkable story of how horrific tragedy gave birth to medical triumph.

Table of Contents:
Prologue: "Little Pearl Harbor" Chapter One: "A Regiment of Wizards" Chapter Two: "The Die Is Cast" Chapter Three: "Angels in Long Underwear" Chapter Four: "Journey into the Nightmare" Chapter Five: "A Special Affinity" Chapter Six: "Recommendation to Secrecy" Chapter Seven: "Magnum Opus" Chapter Eight: "Forgotten Front" Chapter Nine: "A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery" Chapter Ten: "Frontal Attack" Chapter Eleven: Trials and Tribulations Chapter Twelve: "The Sword and the Ploughshare" Epilogue: Belated Justice

About the Author :
Jennet Conant is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Irregulars and Tuxedo Park. A former journalist, she has written for Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ, Newsweek and the New York Times.

Review :
In a history that reads like a novel, Conant connects the 1943 bombing by the Nazis of an American ship containing banned mustard gas to the development of chemotherapy as a cancer treatment. [A] compelling narrative. . . . fascinating. Engrossing. . . . Convey[s] a fast-paced medical detective story that demonstrates how careful scientific observation can yield unexpected benefits and serves as a reminder of the difficult choices made by governments to balance public health and secrecy in matters of security. Conant delights in the devilish details, the hidden, overlooked, and deeply personal stories that constitute our collective historical record. In her deft and experienced hands, readers will discover great delight as well. With a keen understanding of medical science, cancer, and the history of World War II, as well as an amazing range of sources, Conant dramatically illuminates a dark moment in history that eventually led to the medical breakthrough of chemotherapy. [A] fast-paced history-cum-detective story the gripping story of a chemical weapons catastrophe, its cover-up, and how one army doctor's discovery led to the development of chemotherapy the book succeeds as a history of chemotherapy's origins Jennet Conant unravels the remarkable story of a World War Two chemical weapons disaster which inspired one of the twentieth century's greatest breakthroughs in medicine with verve and precision. The Great Secret reads like a wartime adventure and political thriller combined. With a scintillating detective-tale plot rendered with an accomplished novelist's flair, Jennet Conant peels back the layers of deception employed by Allied authorities-including Winston Churchill-to conceal the fact that many of those who died at the Bari disaster in December 1943 perished from unprecedented exposure to mustard gas and immersion in ship fuel oil. This fast-paced narrative alone would make The Great Secret a landmark work, but Conant surpasses this with the even more astonishing chronicle of how insights into the Bari deaths ultimately galvanized the creation of the whole field of cancer chemotherapy. This is a heartbreaking and inspiring tale of tragedy leading to triumph. A ripping good yarn, jam-packed with marvelous prose, wonderful historical characters, and superb research on a little known but critical chapter in the history of medicine and the Second World War. I could not put this book down until I reached the final page. Author and journalist Jennet Conant has uncovered a humdinger of a tale, one that is equal parts war story, conspiracy thriller and medical mystery. More than anything, The Great Secret shows how the dogged efforts of a handful of scientists were able to turn a wartime tragedy and coverup into one of society's greatest gifts. This is a rare jewel of a story that readers will love and fellow historians will covet. Remarkable...the story of a genuinely extraordinary man [told] uncommonly well. A brilliant account of the all but vanished reputation of an amateur physicist who became a friend and peer of the greatest scientists of his time.