Readings In American Health Care: Current Issues In Socio-Historical Perspective / Edition 1

by William G. Rothstein

Overview

Readings in American Health Care is an introduction to the historical development and current status of a wide variety of health care topics. The readings, written by historians, sociologists, economists, physicians, nurses, and public health researchers, are organized in sections:
•    Basic Concepts: mortality trends, concepts of disease, changes in medical therapy
•    Public Health: AIDS, cigarette smoking, preventive medicine, fluoridation
•    Health Care Professions: cardiology, pathology, women in medicine, nursing, podiatry, midwives
•    Health Care Organizations: hospitals, HMOs
•    Mental Illness
•    Financing Health Care
•    Medical Education
•    Issues: abortion, ethical issues, cancer control, prenatal care, home care, the pharmaceutical industry
•    Background Readings: American medicine from 1920 to midcentury.

    The readings were chosen especially for course use in history, sociology, public health, and related fields, but can also provide useful background reading for anyone interested or involved in American health care. Each selection includes an introduction, questions for the reader, and a bibliography. Scholars and students alike will find the book an invaluable resource.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780299145347
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	10/15/1995
Pages:	426
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

William G. Rothstein is professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He is the author of American Physicians in the Nineteenth Century: From Sects to Science and American Medical Schools and the Practice of Medicine.

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Robert L. Martensen, MD, PhD (University of Kansas Medical Center)
Description: The author assembled 32 essays by noted scholars on the most important aspects of current U.S. healthcare. These include medical diagnosis and therapy, public health, healthcare finance, professionalization, healthcare organization, pharmaceuticals, and disease as a social concept.
Purpose: Designed to provide broad coverage of issues in healthcare for general readers at the college level, the essays provide critical scholar analyses of past and current practices and concepts in medicine in accessible formats.
Audience: The book is an excellent resource for teachers offering a survey of U.S. healthcare during the past 100 years as well as for those who desire to frame current issues in a social and historical context. The authors include historians, economists, sociologists, physicians, nurses, public health researchers, and others who have made notable contributions to the literature on U.S. healthcare.
Features: Articles are introduced by abstracts, accompanied by footnotes and references, and specialized language is explained. The book is divided by topic into eight sections, and it contains an index.
Assessment: For anyone interested in the evolution of U.S. healthcare and those who desire critical perspectives on its current shape, this book is essential. I think it is the best critical survey of healthcare in one book since Paul Starr's The Social Transformation of American Medicine, published in 1982.

Doody's Review Service

Rothstein’s introductions to each selection provide historical context and direct students to the selection’s salient themes and hypotheses. There are fine suggestions for additional reading, and the study questions are a useful mix of the factual and the thought-provoking. ”—Stuart Galishoff, Georgia State University



“Intended for advanced undergraduate and graduate-level students.”
—Journal of Economic Literature

From the Publisher

5 Stars! from Doody

The author assembled 32 essays by noted scholars on the most important aspects of current U.S. healthcare. These include medical diagnosis and therapy, public health, healthcare finance, professionalization, healthcare organization, pharmaceuticals, and disease as a social concept. Designed to provide broad coverage of issues in healthcare for general readers at the college level, the essays provide critical scholar analyses of past and current practices and concepts in medicine in accessible formats. The book is an excellent resource for teachers offering a survey of U.S. healthcare during the past 100 years as well as for those who desire to frame current issues in a social and historical context. The authors include historians, economists, sociologists, physicians, nurses, public health researchers, and others who have made notable contributions to the literature on U.S. healthcare. Articles are introduced by abstracts, accompanied by footnotes and references, and specialized language is explained. The book is divided by topic into eight sections, and it contains an index. For anyone interested in the evolution of U.S. healthcare and those who desire critical perspectives on its current shape, this book is essential. I think it is the best critical survey of healthcare in one book since Paul Starr's The Social Transformation of American Medicine, published in 1982.

Robert L. Martensen

A collection of journal articles from the 1980s examining the historical development of current health care issues in American society and comparing them to related issues of the past. Articles by sociologists, historians, economists, physicians, and health researchers include introductions, bibliographies, and discussion questions, and brief explanations of relevant concepts and terms. Paper edition (unseen), $17.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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