In three chapters covering the period 1660–1820 and one covering 1820–1860, Shryock lucidly describes medical thought and practice, the composition of the profession, as well as its education, regulation, research (or lack of it), institutions, organizations, and publications. He discusses health conditions among the general population and the efforts made to improve these conditions by public and private measures. These topics are carefully related to one another, to the general background of American society, and to their European origins or counterparts. This book offers, in compact form, a sound and readable synthesis of many aspects of American medical history, which is based on the author's years of brilliant and productive research in the field.
(Science) The sweep of the work is excellent, and the stirring times of which Shryock writes need to be recalled to us in an age when everything is taken for granted and where any suggestion that people struggled to give us the country in its present state is thought sentimental.
(Yale Review) This book will be most useful to the general historian who seeks depth of understanding about the role of medicine in the early life of this country and to the medical historian who seeks a larger frame for his or her specific knowledge. Shryock's wit and perspective will please all who refer to this book.
(American Historical Review)
