Medical sociology : an annotated bibliography, 1972-1982 /

Although Theodore J. Litman's bibliography The Sociology of Medicine and Health Care (1976) covers this interdisciplinary field from its beginnings through 1971, Medical Sociology updates the topic through 1982. This selective bibliography of 1,949 annotated entries includes books, articles, and government documents. Generally, the compilers have duplicated Litman's arrangement of entries, dividing the book into 14 broad topics that are then subdivided. Within each subtopic, books are listed first, then articles. Each annotation provides the purpose, type of work (text, literature review, etc.), main theme or finding, and audience. Author and subject indexes are included, and index entries refer the reader to page numbers even though the citations are numbered. Although one theoretical perspective (Marxist) is indexed, others (e.g., functionalism, symbolic interactionism) are not-a loss for sociology students especially. The most unfortunate feature of the work is its homogeneous typescript. The lack of boldface or underlining and the featureless format of the entries themselves make it difficult to scan. Overall, however, this very useful bibliography is recommended to academic libraries at all levels.-M.E. Fleury, University of New Orleans