Bargaining for life : a social history of tuberculosis, 1876-1938 /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Bates, Barbara, 1928-2002
Imprint:Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, c1992.
Description:x, 435 p. : ill., map ; 24 cm.
Language:English
Series:Studies in health, illness, and caregiving in America
Subject:Tuberculosis -- Pennsylvania -- History.
Tuberculosis -- history -- United States.
Tuberculosis -- Social aspects
Tuberculosis.
Pennsylvania.
History.
Format: Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/1355947
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:0812231201 (cloth : acid-free paper)
081221367X (pbk.)
Notes:Includes bibliographical references (p. [417]-422) and index.
Review by Choice Review

Throughout the 19th century and up until the 1920s, tuberculosis was the leading cause of death in the Western world. Most histories of tuberculosis focus on the accumulation of medical knowledge or describe the efforts of public health officials and voluntary organizations to combat the white plague. Bates, however, looks at the disease from the perspectives of the patients and their caretakers, including family members, clergy, sanatorium operators, nurses, and physicians. Using a wide variety of sources, especially the voluminous correspondence of Lawrence F. Flick, a Philadelphia physician who established sanatoriums and a tuberculosis research center and helped launch the anti-tuberculosis movement in the US, Bates weaves a rich social history that has resonance today for persons concerned about AIDS, cancer, mental illness, and other disorders that require prolonged care. Her work will find a wide audience among both historians and health care professionals. Lower-division undergraduate through graduate level collections. S. Galishoff Georgia State University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review