Seeking the Cure: A History of Medicine in America

by Ira Rutkow

A timely, authoritative, and entertaining history of medicine in America by an eminent physician Despite all that has been written and said about American medicine, narrative accounts of its history are uncommon. Until Ira Rutkow’s Seeking the Cure, there have been no modern works, either for the lay reader or the physician, that convey the extraordinary story of medicine in the United States. Yet for more than three centuries, the flowering of medicine—its triumphal progress from ignorance to science—has proven crucial to Americans’ under-standing of their country and themselves. Seeking the Cure tells the tale of American medicine with a series of little-known anecdotes that bring to life the grand and unceasing struggle by physicians to shed unsound, if venerated, beliefs and practices and adopt new medicines and treatments, often in the face of controversy and scorn. Rutkow expertly weaves the stories of individual doctors—what they believed and how they practiced—with the economic, political, and social issues facing the nation. Among the book’s many historical personages are Cotton Mather, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington (whose timely adoption of a controversial medical practice probably saved the Continental Army), Benjamin Rush, James Garfield (who was killed by his doctors, not by an assassin’s bullet), and Joseph Lister. The book touches such diverse topics as smallpox and the Revolutionary War, the establishment of the first medical schools, medicine during the Civil War, railroad medicine and the beginnings of specialization, the rise of the medical-industrial complex, and the thrilling yet costly advent of modern disease-curing technologies utterly unimaginable a generation ago, such as gene therapies, body scanners, and robotic surgeries. In our time of spirited national debate over the future of American health care amid a seemingly infinite flow of new medical discoveries and pharmaceutical products, Rutkow’s account provides readers with an essential historic, social, and even philosophical context. Working in the grand American literary tradition established by such eminent writer-doctors as Oliver Wendell Holmes, William Carlos Williams, Sherwin Nuland, and Oliver Sacks, he combines the historian’s perspective with the physician’s seasoned expertise. Capacious, learned, and gracefully told, Seeking the Cure will satisfy armchair historians and doctors alike, for, as Rutkow shows, the history of American medicine is a portrait of America itself.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medicine, Science, Science Nature, History Of Medicine

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so excited for this book and I have to say, it left me wanting more. The author clearly stated in the introduction that he would be unable to cover all of America's medical history because that would become a much larger book and no one would want to read it. While I understand that sentiment, I have no idea how a section of the book can be devoted to medical advancements due to the Civil War with no mention of Clara Barton and her influential work with the Sanitary Commission and the American Red Cross. Additionally, I don't know how another section could be devoted to medical advancements due to WWII with no mention of the unethical medical testing on the Tuskegee Airman and/or any of the other medical testing done with no knowledge of those being tested on. GAH! I found these missing details critical and frustrating. Overall an interesting read but be careful, there are many holes in this history.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a general overview of the history of American medicine, though as a surgeon himself, Rutkow tends to focus on surgical developments--he also focuses a bit too much on "great men," although his stories are extremely entertaining. He writes a quick moving narrative. This book is useful as a chronological overview, and is especially strong in its description of nineteenth-century medicine (Rutkow's previous work includes studies of Civil War medicine). I found his treatment of the twentieth century to be much weaker, but I enjoyed this book, nonetheless.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enlightening brief history of American medicine, done essentially as a series of short vignettes about important moments in American medicine history.

The writing would never set the best non-fiction writers of this world on fire with its insight or beauty, but it is a functional book. Glad I read it, and didn't have a hard time understanding or finishing it. I even learned what a trocar is. 3 stars!

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

recommended for history of medicine buffs. a very readable account.