Reddit reviews The Demon Under the Microscope: From Battlefield Hospitals to Nazi Labs, One Doctor's Heroic Search for the World's First Miracle Drug

Two amazing books called The Alchemy of Air and The Demon Under The Microscope talk about how late 1800s/early 1900s Germany was able to come to power by reling on its universities working closely with large Germany industries through research and development. Germany didn't have to many abundant resources besides coal and with that they did incredible things. They were also late to game in terms of colonization and trading companies, which they had to overcome when they were somewhat isolated from the world during WWI and II.

If you are an eningeer or scientist I highly recommend these books. Thomas Hager is an incredible writer.

You may want to read this for a counterpoint to your post.

The author uses is Calvin Coolidge, Jr. as the sort of exemplar. When the son of the President, with basically all the medical might the U.S. could throw at his problem to cure him, winds up dying from a trivial injury, it's a much different sort of world, and that's as recent as 1924.

>At the time, doctors knew very little about birth, they weren't even washing their hands between autopsies and deliveries

I knew that actually! I love historical medicine. Also I'm a biologist with a degree in public health so stuff like that is right up my alley. This book goes into that and the origins of hand washing pretty well. It's a great story. Actually I've liked all of the Thomas Hager books I've read so far. Sam Kean is another favorite author of mine who does medical/scientific history very well.

not to discount your point at all (i agree with it) but a notable counterexample is the invention/discovery of Sulfa drugs by German pharmaceuticals as documented in The Demon Under the Microscope