Philip J. Hilts


Philip Hilts

Protecting America's Health: The FDA, Business, and 100 Years of Regulation

Smokescreen: The Truth Behind the Tobacco Industry Cover-up

Memory's Ghost: The Nature of Memory and the Strange Tale of Mr. M

National Book Award Finalist. Scientific Temperaments: Three Lives in Contemporary Science

Welcome

Philip J. Hilts, the author of five books, has been a prize-winning health and science reporter for both the New York Times and the Washington Post. Over twenty years� time he placed more than 300 stories on the front pages of those papers. His stories have included a report back from one mile below the Pacific Ocean surface in an active volcano, the confessions of a healer in Zambia who was "curing" AIDS, and articles on hypnosis-induced court testimony that resulted in four men being freed from jail.

His most recent book, Protecting America's Health: The FDA, Business and 100 Years of Regulation was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His book Scientific Temperaments was a finalist for the National Book Award. Smokescreen: The Truth Behind the Tobacco Industry Cover-up was selected as one of the ten best books of the year by Business Week Magazine.

In addition to writing, Hilts has taught science journalism to graduate students at Boston University and, more recently taught journalism to undergraduates at the University of Botswana. He has been listed in Who�s Who in America since 1994.

The Latest Book:

It is the history of the FDA, and the battle over regulation in America, but it is a story with a compelling narration, told "with the flourish and vividness of an experienced journalist aware of the drama inherent in the story he is telling," as Dr Sherwin Nuland wrote in the New York Tiems Book Review. It is "a genuinely important book, rich in history, accurate in detail, unflinching in analysis," said Dr Jerome Groopman in The New Republic.


Deadly remedies c. 1900, from "Protecting America's Health: The FDA, Business and 100 Years of Regulation"

Images from FDA History in "Protecting America's Health"


Books and Articles

Books and Articles
Protecting America�s Health: The FDA, Business, and One Hundred Years of Regulation.
The only history of the Food and Drug Administration, this book tells the story of the fight over using science as the basis of public policy. Named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
Smokescreen: The Truth Behind the Tobacco Industry Cover-Up
This book is an investigation of the tobacco industry's forty-year disinformation campaign on cigarette smoking, from Hilts, who was the reporter who broke the story of the tobacco companies' thousands of pages of secret documents. His reports were among those that started the "tobacco wars" in the United States, which continue today in the courts. Selected as one of the �ten best books of the year� by Business Week, and was a finalist in the London Financial Times global business book awards.
Memory's Ghost: The Nature of Memory and The Strange Tale of Mr. M
The story of Mr. M, whose memory was removed accidentally during a surgey in 1953, and what we began to learn about memory from his case. Traces the study of memory over the past 3,000 years in science and literature, and through Henry's case tells about the matter and meaning of memory.
Scientific Temperaments: Three Lives in Contemporary Science
A penetrating look at the human side of science, and how the human element drives the rational endeavor. Examines the quirky lives and work of three founding scientists in artificial intelligence, molecular biology and particle physics. A finalist for the National Book Award.

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