This is a professional-level intellectual history of the development of immunology from about 1720 to about 1970. Beginning with the work and insights of the early immunologists in the 18th century, Silverstein traces the development of the major ideas which have formed immunology down to the maturation of the discipline in the decade following the Second World War. Emphasis is placed on the philosophic and sociologic climate of the scientific milieu in which immunology has developed, providing a background to the broad culture of the discipline.

• A professional-level intellectual history of the development of immunology from about 1720 to 1970, with emphasis placed on the social climate of the scientific milieu in which modern immunology evolved
• Written by an author very well known both as a historian of medical science and for his substantial research contributions to the immunopathology of the eye
• The only complete history of immunology available