Disorder: A History of Reform, Reaction, and Money in American Medicine

by Peter A. Swenson

An incisive look into the problematic relationships among medicine, politics, and business in America and their effects on the nation’s health

Meticulously tracing the dramatic conflicts both inside organized medicine and between the medical profession and the larger society over quality, equality, and economy in health care, Peter A. Swenson illuminates the history of American medical politics from the late nineteenth century to the present. This book chronicles the role of medical reformers in the progressive movement around the beginning of the twentieth century and the American Medical Association’s dramatic turn to conservatism later.

Addressing topics such as public health, medical education, pharmaceutical regulation, and health-care access, Swenson paints a disturbing picture of the entanglements of medicine, politics, and profit seeking that explain why the United States remains the only economically advanced democracy without universal health care. Swenson does, however, see a potentially brighter future as a vanguard of physicians push once again for progressive reforms and the adoption of inclusive, effective, and affordable practices.

Genres: Nonfiction

584 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2021

About the author

Peter A. Swenson is the C. M. Saden Professor of Political Science at Yale University. He is the author of Capitalists against Markets: The Making of Labor Markets and Welfare States in the United States and Sweden.

Reviews

[Ceil · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exhaustive study of the development of the healthcare profession in America, mostly 1880 - 1930, by which time the reactionary (and highly profitable) approach to governance was firmly in place.

Any book that reminds us that the tension between profit and public health has been with us from the country's beginning is worth putting on the shelf. I only wish it had given as much attention to more recent developments.

[Parksy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good overview of the history of the American Medical Association. Excellent history of how doctors looking out for their own interests weren’t always in the best interest of patients or the public health.