Barron H. Lerner

Who is Barron H. Lerner?

Barron H. Lerner is a member of the faculty at the New York University Langone School of Medicine. He received his M.D. from Columbia in 1986 and his Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington in 1996. In addition to his research, Lerner practices internal medicine and teaches medical ethics and the history of medicine.

His book The Breast Cancer Wars: Hope, Fear and the Pursuit of a Cure in Twentieth-Century America, published in 2001, was cited as an American Library Association Notable Book the following year. Lerner also received the 2006 William H. Welch Medal of the American Association for the History of Medicine for the book; one such Medal is awarded each year to the author or authors of a book of "outstanding scholarly merit in the field of medical history" published during the five calendar years preceding the award.

His book One for the Road: Drunk Driving Since 1900, is the first history of drunk driving in America. It was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in October 2011.

Lerner's other books are Contagion and Confinement: Controlling Tuberculosis on the Skid Road and When Illness Goes Public: Celebrity Patients and How We Look at Medicine.