Rise of the Modern Hospital

Between 1870 and 1940, medicine was transformed, as countless studies have chronicled. The hospital was a key site in that transformation, shifting from a place of charitable care to a modern technological machine for all patients. Yet we still know surprisingly little about the hospital as a building, and how changes it underwent reflected and influenced the shifts in medicine occurring within it. Drawing on examples from the eastern and midwestern United States, but especially from New York City, Jeanne Kisacky's book provides a detailed examination of alterations in design, engineering, and practices that illuminate how medicine became modern. Admirably, the book makes its over 170 illustrations integral to its analysis. Kisacky persuasively argues that the hospital is a valuable venue for exploring the larger medical debate surrounding environment and behavior. As she puts it, “Which creates health—the world we inhabit, or the actions taken within it” (p. 343)? The book oscillates persuasively between building and practice, with neither proving conclusive. Tragically, physicians felt by the 1970s that they had won the battle against nosocomial infections, only to almost immediately (and continuously since) have their hopes dashed

Ancient history · Battle · Family medicine · Health care · History of medicine · Key (lock · Modern medicine · Political science · Sociology · Classics · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · History · Law · Medicine

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