August 1943 to August 1945 : when Pax Americana was soft penicillin power, not hard atomic bomb power

Why exactly does Penicillin remain the best known and best loved medication of all time ?

Consider these points in its disfavour.

Its amazing life-saving qualities were not truly unique - not before or after it first became famous in late 1943.

The then still new Sulfa drugs, first popularized in the late 1930s , were also miracle life savers.

But , unlike 1943 penicillin , they were also inexpensive, abundant in supply and could be taken as infrequent pills.

Penicillin was in extremely short supply and was very, very expensive . It also required refrigeration and had to be given by needle.

In fact, in some ways, the original Penicillin was one of the worse ever drugs for a patient to receive.

The soft power reason 1945 British Commonwealth not globe's only Superpower

Strictly in terms of geographic climate hard power, the 1945 British Commonwealth (then at the height of its geographic extent) was the world's only global superpower.

Having lots of sovereign territory spaced out all over the world is the best way to be a superpower --- for a variety of reasons.

I write about wartime penicillin rivalry from a seemingly unique perspective : as a practitioner from the world of politics

It constantly amazes me that all the noteworthy books and academic papers to date on wartime penicillin have been written either by people from the worlds of medicine/science or by historians and economists of industry, science and technology.

Where, oh where, are people from the world of politics and political science when it comes to writing about the highly politicized saga of wartime (and postwar) penicillin ?

Here's why I ask :