Christian Warren's Brush with Death: A Social History of Lead Poisoning is an ambitious attempt to trace the twentieth-century history of lead poisoning in America. As such, it focuses on a timely and important topic. Yet, despite Warren's claim that he offers a comprehensive social and cultural approach integrating discussions of three different yet interrelated modes of lead exposure -- occupational, pediatric, and environmental (universal) -- this work is uneven, at times superficial, and in several instances interpretively incorrect.