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THE name “penicillin” is as evocative as any global brand. In his book, Robert Bud shows how this “miracle” tool transformed medicine’s status and even hastened the sexual revolution by removing the fear of venereal disease. He also traces the emergence of antibiotic resistance, including the first case of MRSA in 1961. Surprisingly, current debates about paying for medical advances, the power of drug companies, pharmaceutical versus holistic views of disease, and drug residues in food were all hot topics in the post-war years when penicillin was first widely used. This is a highly detailed account of how we arrived at what may be the threshold of a post-antibiotic age, containing a wealth of medical and social history.…