| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.1

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Biotech: The Countercultural Origins of an Industry. By Eric J. Vettel. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. xvi, 273 pp. $39.95, ISBN 978-0-8122-3947-8.)
There are many ways to tell the story of the origins of the biotechnology industry. The approach Eric J. Vettel takes in his new book is an interesting one. Beginning at three Bay Area universities—University of California, Berkeley (ucb); Stanford; and University of California, San Francisco (ucsf)—in the wake of World War II, Vettel explores how a deep commitment to basic research and a few strong personalities shaped early developments in the biological sciences on the West Coast and across the globe. Vettel suggests that from an unreflective commitment to fundamental discovery in the postwar era, public support for providing tax money to allow scientists to follow their curiosity soured in the 1960s. According to Vettel, elected officials responded by directing tax resources to research that sought to meet social needs.	1
That environment, Vettel tells us, created the context for the birth of the biotechnology industry. Scientists saw opportunities to frame their work as relevant to public concerns, even as they sought to unlock the secrets of life at the molecular level. Then too, ambitious Bay Area entrepreneurs observed the developments at the region's universities and imagined ways to make fortunes.	. . .

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