“I am opposed to cancer and heart attacks the way I am opposed to sin.” With that as her battlecry, a petite, well-coiffed socialite forever changed American medical research.

In Crusade to Heal America, Judith L. Pearson shares the never-before-told story of Mary Lasker, a woman who was savvy, steely, and deliberate, with the goal of eliminating human suffering. While scientists looked at disease as a problem to be solved, Lasker saw it as a beast to be slain. Her first step was creating, with her husband Albert, the Lasker Foundation, which bestows annual awards for medical research. Next, they reimagined—and renamed—the American Cancer Society, greatly increasing the donations. But when Lasker learned that 40% of WWII volunteers had been rejected for health reasons, she asked the question no one else had: Why wasn’t the federal government funding medical research? Proclaiming herself a “catalytic agent,” she led a ceaseless, behind-the-scenes crusade to improve the health of Americans.

Lasker’s crusade transformed the National Institute of Health from a single, poorly funded entity to the greatest medical research facility on the planet. And while she counted legislators, medical experts, celebrities, and presidents as allies, she was not without naysayers and enemies who wanted to see her fail. When her beloved Albert died of cancer, Lasker doubled-down on her crusade, insisting that a cure for the disease was within reach with more research money.

As if on cue, a paranoid President Richard Nixon’s dilemma of how to prevent his nemesis, Senator Edward Kennedy from taking the White House appeared on the horizon. Lasker’s newly proclaimed “moonshot against cancer” would be his perfect tool. Despite dark political intrigue, her crusade ultimately resulted in an extraordinary $1.3 billion for cancer research ($9.6 billion today), turning the nearly always fatal disease into one that was survivable. Fusing elements of American history, New York high society, and shrewd political acumen, Crusade to Heal America acquaints us with a feisty and fearless “fairy god-mother of medical research” who positioned herself at the crossroads of politics, science, and society—to the benefit of us all.

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