Videri - User contributions [en]

Twentieth Century United States

2014-10-27T20:20:44Z

Dramin:

==Book Summaries==
* Donna Alvah. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/women-and-children-first-the-importance-of-gender-and-military-families-in-the-cold-war-era/ Unofficial Ambassadors: American Military Families Overseas and the Cold War, 1946-1965] (2007).
* Alex Cummings. [[Here's How to Make a New Page: The Revenge, 1955-1957|Here's How to Make a New Page]] (2013).
* Luis Alvarez. [[The Power of the Zoot|The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance during World War II]] (2008).
* Karen Anderson. [[Wartime Women|Wartime Women: Sex Roles, Family Relations, and the Status of Women During World War II]] (1981).
* Brookelynn Ashworth. [[Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown, the Woman Behind Cosmopolitan Magazine]] (2009).
* Eric Avila. [[Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight|Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles]] (2004).
* Beth Bailey. [[America’s Army|America’s Army: Making the All-Volunteer Force]] (2009).
* Beth Bailey & David Farber. [[The First Strange Place|The First Strange Place: The Alchemy of Race and Sex in World War II Hawaii]] (1992).
* Beth Bailey. [[From Front Porch to Back Seat|From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in Twentieth-Century America]] (1989).
* Mark Brilliant. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/californication-race-ethnicity-and-unity-in-twentieth-century-california/ Californication: Race, Ethnicity, and Unity in Twentieth Century California] (2012).
* Amy Bridges. [[Morning Glories]] (1999).
* Laura Briggs. [[Reproducing Empire|Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico]] (2002).
* Alan Brinkley. [[Voices of Protest|Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, & the Great Depression]] (1983).
* Charlotte Brooks. [[Alien Neighbors, Foreign Friends|Alien Neighbors, Foreign Friends: Asian Americans, Housing, and the Transformation of Urban California]] (2009).
* Robert Caro. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/dog-days-classics-robert-caros-controversial-portrait-of-robert-moses-and-new-york/ The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York](1974)
* Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/dog-days-classics-political-boss-and-midwestern-pharaoh-richard-j-daleys-chicago-legacy/ American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley - His Battle for the Nation and Chicago] (2001)
* Lizabeth Cohen. [[A Consumers’ Republic|A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America]] (2003).
* Lizabeth Cohen. [[Making a New Deal|Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939]] (2008).
* Nancy F. Cott. [[Public Vows|Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation]] (2002).
* Pete Daniel, [[Lost Revolutions|Lost Revolutions: The South in the 1950s]] (2000)
* Mike Davis. [[City of Quartz|City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles]] (2006).
* Mike Davis & Michael Sprinker. [[Magical Urbanism|Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the US Big City]] (2001).
* Michael J. Dear. [[The Postmodern Urban Condition]] (2001).
* Robert C. Donnelly. [[Dark Rose]] (2011).
* Steven Erie. [[Globalizing L.A.|Globalizing L.A.: Trade, Infrastructure, and Regional Development]] (2004).
* Steven P. Erie. [[Beyond Chinatown|Beyond Chinatown: The Metropolitan Water District, Growth, and the Environment in Southern California]] (2006).
* Elizabeth Ewen. [[Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars]] (1985).
* Barbara Ferman. [[Challenging the Growth Machine|Challenging the Growth Machine: Neighborhood Politics in Chicago and Pittsburgh]] (1996).
* John M. Findlay. [[Magic Lands|Magic Lands: Western Cityscapes and American Culture After 1940]] (1993).
* Steven Gregory. [[Black Corona|Black Corona: Race and the Politics of Place in an Urban Community]] (1999).
* Jason Hackworth. [[The Neoliberal City|The Neoliberal City: Governance, Ideology, and Development in American Urbanism]] (2006).
* William Ivy Hair. [[Carnival of Fury|Carnival of Fury: Robert Charles and the New Orleans Race Riot of 1900]] (2008).
* Tona J. Hangen. [[Redeeming the Dial|Redeeming the Dial: Radio, Religion, and Popular Culture in America]] (2013).
* Chester W. Hartman. [[Yerba Buena|Yerba Buena: land grab and community resistance in San Francisco,]] (1974).
* Georgina Hickey. [[Hope and Danger in the New South City|Hope and Danger in the New South City: Working-Class Women and Urban Development in Atlanta, 1890-1940]] (2005).
* Richard Hofstadter. [[The American Political Tradition|The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made it]] (1989).
* Daniel Horowitz. [[Betty Friedan and the Making of “The Feminine Mystique”|Betty Friedan and the Making of “The Feminine Mystique”: The American Left, the Cold War, and Modern Feminism]] (2000).
* Daniel Martinez HoSang. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/erasing-race-whiteness-california-and-the-colorblind-bind/ Racial Propositions: Ballot Initiatives and the Making of Postwar California](2010)
* Jonathan Hughes (Editor)& Simon Sadler (Editor).[[Non-Plan|Non-Plan: Essays on Freedom, Participation and Change in Modern Architecture and Urbanism]] (2000).
* Daniel Hurewitz. [[Bohemian Los Angeles|Bohemian Los Angeles: and the Making of Modern Politics]] (2007).
* Marilynn S. Johnson. [[The Second Gold Rush|The Second Gold Rush: Oakland and the East Bay in World War II]] (1994).
* Tony Judt. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/neoliberalisms-license-to-ill/ Ill Fares the Land] (2011).
* Larry D. Kramer. [[The People Themselves: Popular Constitutionalism and Judicial Review]] (2004).
* Joel Kotkin. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/americas-ace-in-the-hole-is-of-course-its-awesomeness/ The Next Hundred Million:America in 2050] (2010)
* Kevin M. Kruse. [[White Flight|White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism]] (2007).
* Matthew D. Lassiter. [[The Silent Majority|The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South]] (2007).
* William R. Leach. [[Land of Desire|Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture]] (1994).
* Michael F. Logan. [[Fighting Sprawl and City Hall|Fighting Sprawl and City Hall: Resistance to Urban Growth in the Southwest]] (1995).
* Roger W. Lotchin. [[Fortress California, 1910-1961|Fortress California, 1910-1961: From Warfare to Welfare]] (2002).
* Lisa Lowe. [[Immigrant Acts|Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics]] (1996).
* Robert S. Lynd & Helen Merrell Lynd. [[Middletown|Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture]] (1959).
* Catherine Lutz. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/3187/ Homefront: A Military City and the American 20th Century] (2001).
* Nancy MacLean. [[Freedom Is Not Enough|Freedom Is Not Enough: The Opening of the American Workplace]] (2008).
* Isaac Martin. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/stalking-the-tax-man-the-pervasive-influence-of-the-property-tax-revolt/ The Permanent Tax Revolt: How Property Tax Transformed America] (2008).
* Douglas Massey & Nancy Denton. [[American Apartheid|American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass]] (1993).
* Elaine Tyler May. [[America and The Pill|America and The Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation]] (2010).
* Carol Lynn McKibben. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/3187/ Racial Beachhead: Diversity and Democracy in a Military Town] (2012).
* Lisa McGirr. [[Suburban Warriors|Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right]] (2002).
* James Miller. [[Flowers in the Dustbin|Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 1947-1977]] (2000).
* Glen M. Mimura. [[Ghostlife of the Third Cinema|Ghostlife of Third Cinema: Asian American Film and Video]] (2009).
* John Hull Mollenkopf. [[The Contested City]] (1983).
* Maggi M. Morehouse. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/double-victory-from-wwii-to-the-avf-african-americans-and-the-u-s-military/ Fighting in the Jim Crow Army: Black Man and Women Remember World War II] (2000).
* Edward P. Morgan. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/a-mediating-mess-how-american-post-wwii-media-undermined-democracy/ What Really Happened to the Sixties: How Mass Media Culture Failed American Democracy] (2011)
* Charles Moskos Jr. and John Sibley Butler. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/double-victory-from-wwii-to-the-avf-african-americans-and-the-u-s-military/ All That We Can Be: Black Leadership and Racial Integration the Army Way] (1996).
* Andrew H. Myers. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/3187/ Black, White, and Olive Drab: Racial Integration at Fort Jackson, South Carolina and the Civil Rights Movement] (2006).
* Armando Navarro. [[The Cristal Experiment|The Cristal Experiment: A Chicano Struggle for Community Control]] (1998).
* Becky M. Nicolaides. [[My Blue Heaven|My Blue Heaven: Life and Politics in the Working-Class Suburbs of Los Angeles, 1920-1965]] (2002).
* Margaret Pugh O’Mara. [[Cities of Knowledge|Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Search for the Next Silicon Valley]] (2004).
* Gilbert Osofsky. [[Harlem|Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto : Negro New York, 1890-1930]] (1996).
* Rick Perlstein. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/essence-precedes-existence-the-problem-of-identity-politics-in-hurewitzs-bohemian-la/ Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America](2009).
* Rebecca Jo Plant. [[Mom|Mom: The Transformation of Motherhood in Modern America]] (2012).
* Brenda Gayle Plummer. [[Window on Freedom|Window on Freedom: Race, Civil Rights, and Foreign Affairs, 1945-1988]] (2003).
* Jerald E. Podair. [[The Strike that Changed New York|The Strike that Changed New York: Blacks, Whites, and the Ocean Hill-Brownsville Crisis]] (2002).
* Doris Marie Provine. [[Unequal Under Law|Unequal Under Law: Race in the War on Drugs]] (2007).
* Daniel T. Rodgers. [[Contested Truths|Contested Truths: Keywords in American Politics Since Independence]] (1998).
* David Roediger. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/dog-days-classics-the-wages-of-whiteness-and-the-white-people-who-love-them/ The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class] (1991).
* Adam Rome. [[The Bulldozer in the Countryside|The Bulldozer in the Countryside: Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmentalism]] (2001).
* Richard Ronald. [[The Ideology of Home Ownership|The Ideology of Home Ownership: Homeowner Societies and the Role of Housing]] (2008).
* Peter Henry Rossi & Robert A. Dentler. [[The Politics of Urban Renewal|The Politics of Urban Renewal: The Chicago Findings]] (1981).
* Mike Royko. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/dog-days-classics-political-boss-and-midwestern-pharaoh-richard-j-daleys-chicago-legacy/ Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago] (1971)
* Roger Sanjek. [[The Future of Us All|The Future of Us All: Race and Neighborhood Politics in New York City]] (1998).
* Bruce Schulman & Bruce J. Schulman. [[The Seventies|The Seventies: The Great Shift In American Culture, Society, And Politics]] (2002).
* Joel Schwartz. [[The New York Approach|The New York Approach: Robert Moses, Urban Liberals, and Redevelopment of the Inner City]] (1993).
*Gary S. Selby [[Martin Luther King and the Rhetoric of Freedom: The Exodus Narrative in America's Struggle for Civil Rights]] (2008)
* Josh Sides. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/11/20/making-san-francisco-josh-sides-erotic-city/ Erotic City: Sexual Revolutions and the Making of Modern San Francisco] (2009).
* Nayan Shah. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/intimate-citizenship-the-influence-of-marriage-sexuality-and-transience-on-national-membership/Stranger Intimacy:Contesting Race, Sexuality and Law in the American Northwest] (2012).
* David J. Silbey. [[A War of Frontier and Empire: The Philippine-American War, 1899-1902]] (2007).
* Rickie Solinger. [[Beggars and Choosers|Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Adoption, Abortion, and Welfare in the United States]] (2002).
* Allan H. Spear. [[Black Chicago|Black Chicago: The Making of a Negro Ghetto, 1890-1920]] (1969).
* Todd Swanstrom. [[The Crisis of Growth Politics|The Crisis of Growth Politics: Cleveland, Kucinich, and the Challenge of Urban Populism]] (1988).
* Ronald Takaki. [[Hiroshima|Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb]] (1996).
* Penny M. Von Eschen. [[Satchmo Blows Up The World|Satchmo Blows Up The World: Jazz Ambassadors Play The Cold War]] (2004).
* Robert Wiebe. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/dog-day-classics-robert-h-wiebe-and-the-search-for-order/ The Search for Order, 1877 - 1920] (1967).
* Andrew Wiese. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/getting-to-the-mountaintop-the-suburban-dreams-of-african-americans/ Places of Their Own: African American Suburbanization in the Twentieth Century] (2004)
* Rhonda Y. Williams. [[The Politics of Public Housing|The Politics of Public Housing: Black Women’s Struggles Against Urban Inequality]] (2004).
* William Appleman Williams. [[The Tragedy of American Diplomacy]] (2009).
* Gwendolyn Wright. [[Building the Dream|Building the Dream: A Social History of Housing in America]] (1983).
*Zimmerman, Andrew. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/the-ties-that-bind-the-transnational-trick-of-immobilizing-the-mobile/ Alabama in Africa: Booker T. Washington, the German Empire, and the Globalization of the New South] (2010).
*Washington Harriet. [[Medical Apartheid|Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present]] (2006)

Medical Apartheid

2014-10-27T20:18:02Z

Dramin:

{{Infobox book
| name = Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present
| author = Harriet A Washington
| publisher = Double Day
| pub_date = 2006
| pages = 404
| isbn = 9780767915472
| image = [[File:Medical_Apartheid.jpg|200px|alt=Cover]]
}}

Typically when the topic of ethics in medical research arises the most common image is that of the Nazi scientists at the Nuremberg Trials. The culmination of the trials resulted in the creation and adoption of the basic rules of research involving human subjects known as the Nuremberg Code. Among the many points the code the hallmarks include the lack of coercion, beneficence, and informed patient consent. As the trial brought forth a new standard in live human experimentation, across the Atlantic Ocean in Macon county Alabama a heinous medical experiment involving poor black sharecroppers was in full swing. The infamous experiment known as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study involved the exploitation of hundreds of black men and their families for the sake scientific advancement. In modern times the study is often regarded by those in the medical community as a one time mistake steeped in the politics and racism of the mid twentieth century. Unfortunately, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study is merely one incident in a long line of medical crimes committed against generations of African Americans.

Harriet A. Washington author of Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present, has produced a riveting account of the major medical research atrocities throughout the history of United States of America. She opens with a vignette of J. Marion Sims the man widely known and respected as “the father of gynecology” and a pioneer of women’s health. The statues of Sims dot the landscape of from South Carolina to the prestigious Columbia University in New York City attest his significance to American medicine. While he contributed a great deal to the advancement of gynecology, many of his gains were made possible by the untold suffering of the black slave women he operated on. The operations were a gruesome affair that caused many of his assistants to flee the operating rooms to escape the screams of the helpless victims who were operated on without the use of anesthesia. The bodies of the slave women were mutilated and their organs placed on display like pieces of art in a gallery. The point Washington makes with Sims is that the medical exploitation of blacks is a long running feature of medicine in the United States.

The goal of Washington was to document medical injustices suffered by blacks as well as note the residual effects these experiments have had on the relationship between blacks and the medical community. She wanted to show the fear that blacks have against the medical community is not the result of conspiracy theories or hearsay but a logical fear based on generations of mistreatment and exploitation by the hands of medical personnel black and white. Her goal was not to simply portray the largely white medical establishment as an evil entity violating the bodies of helpless and innocent blacks. Although blacks had suffered by the hands of doctors and researchers they were not silent and often resisted to the best of their abilities. Her book forgoes a strict chronological order and is organized into three parts. The first part “A Troubling Tradition,” is a fairly chronological documentation of the medical exploitation blacks were subjected to from the early colonies until the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study in 1932. The second part “The Usual Subjects,” forgoes chronology to focus on certain at risk groups such as children and prisoners in the twentieth century. The final part “Race Technology, and Medicine,” focuses on modern as well as future issues like genetics research and bioterrorism.

The continual theme in the book was the inherent belief both on a conscious and sub conscious level that the lives of blacks were not as valuable as their white counterparts. Instead they became dehumanized vessels more useful as guinea pigs for untested medications and via autopsy a trove of medical information. The numerous tales like that of Casper Yeagin, sixty-eight year old a man who went missing in Washington D.C. for over a month only to be found at Howard Medical School dissection table. Deeper investigation revealed numerous clerical errors that highlighted the systematic failures between the police departments and the local hospital system in properly managing and identifying unknown black patients.(115) The Tuskegee Syphilis Study also engaged in similar acts. They coordinated with local healthcare providers and the federal government to prevent men from receiving treatment to maintain the study after the advent of penicillin as a treatment option. They went as far to offer free burial services to gain access to the corpses for autopsy.(164) Even in contemporary times the pattern continues, James Quinn a middle age black man famous from receiving an experimental artificial heart made by AbioCor in 2001. He like most of the other thirteen patients in the study had died within a year of receiving the heart transplant, suffering from a myriad of health complications resulting from the new mechanical heart. The important factor in the study was that 33 percent of the recipients were black although African Americans only make up 12 percent of the population.(349) The overrepresentation of blacks in the study stoked fears within the black community whether the study was for the benefit of the patients or simply a testing ground for perfecting experimental technology to be later used on majority white patients.

Washington was able to make a forceful argument that African American’s iatrophobia was indeed legitimate and not the result of rampant paranoia. She carefully notes that while not all judgments against the medical community are correct or helpful, the accusations by blacks come from generations of mistreatment and exploitation. Despite the overt opposition from individuals and institutions within the medical community in researching her book, Washington was able to employ a wide range of sources including legal documents, scientific journals, and secondary literature. In addition Washington herself took several premed courses including immunology and toxicology to increase her understanding of medical literature. Medical Apartheid stands apart from the previous historical works like The History of Negro Medicine, by Herbert Morais; An American Health Dilemma, by Drs. Linda Clayton and Michael Byrd; or Bones in the Basement, by Robert Blakely and Judith Harrington that had either too general or narrow in scope to accurately document the exploitation suffered by blacks. Her work is one of a few that attempts to provide a comprehensive history of the racial nature of medical research in America.

While the methods employed by the medical community have changed for the better from the barbaric practices of J. Marion Sims and the black grave robber Grandison Harris there is still room for improvement. The forms of exploitation have become more intricate and subtle even to the researchers themselves. The circumvention on parental consent and the use of dense medical jargon are some of the newer tactics of unethical researchers. Experiments based on faulty race based assumptions in urban areas devoid of diversity still pose a threat in contemporary times. Despite the generations of abuse suffered by blacks, across the nation skilled doctors and researchers are able to overcome some of the apprehension many blacks have towards medical field. There is still hope available for the future as increased efforts are being undertaken to improve diversity within the medical field as well as the lessons learned from previous generations cause scientist to remain ever vigilant to the pitfalls of unbridled research.

[[Category:Twentieth Century United States]]
[[Category:Wikify]]
[[Category:Book Summaries]]
[[Category:Harriet A. Washington]]

User:Dramin

2014-10-27T19:24:06Z

Dramin: Blanked the page

Medical Apartheid

2014-10-27T19:21:36Z

Dramin:

{{Infobox book
| name = Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present
| author = Harriet A Washington
| publisher = Double Day
| pub_date = 2006
| pages = 404
| isbn = 9780767915472
| image = [[File:Medical_Apartheid.jpg|200px|alt=Cover]]
}}

Typically when the topic of ethics in research and medicine arises the most common image is that of the Nazi scientists at the Nuremberg Trials. The culmination of the trials resulted in the creation and adoption of the basic rules of research involving human subjects known as the Nuremberg Code. Among the many points the code present the hallmarks include the lack of coercion, beneficence, and informed patient consent. As the trial brought forth a new standard in live human experimentation, across the Atlantic Ocean in Macon county Alabama a heinous medical experiment involving poor black sharecroppers was in full swing. The infamous experiment known as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study involved the exploitation of hundreds of black men and their families for the sake scientific advancement. The study is often regarded by those in the medical community as a one time mistake steeped in the politics and racism of the mid twentieth century. Unfortunately, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study is merely one incident in a long line of medical crimes committed against generations of African Americans.

Harriet A. Washington author of Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present, has produced a riveting account of the major medical research atrocities throughout the history of United States of America. She opens with a vignette of J. Marion Sims the man widely known and respected as “the father of gynecology” and a pioneer of women’s health. Statues of Sims dot the landscape of the United States from South Carolina to the prestigious Columbia University in New York City. While he contributed a great deal to the advancement of gynecology, many of his gains were made possible by the untold suffering of the black slave women he operated on. The operations were a gruesome affair that caused many of his assistants to flee the operating rooms to escape the screams of the helpless victims who were operated on without the use of anesthesia. The bodies of the slave women were mutilated and their organs placed on display like pieces of art in a gallery. The point Washington makes with Sims is that the medical exploitation of blacks is a long running feature of medicine in the United States.

The goal of Washington was to document medical injustices suffered by blacks as well as note the residual effects these experiments have had on the relationship between blacks and the medical community. She wanted to show the fear that blacks have against the medical community is not the result of conspiracy theories or hearsay but a fear based on generations of mistreatment and exploitation by the hands of medical personnel black and white. Her goal was not to simply portray the largely white medical establishment as an evil entity violating the bodies of helpless and innocent blacks. Although blacks had suffered by the hands of whites and fellow blacks they were not silent and often resisted to the best of their abilities. Her book forgoes a strict chronological order an instead is organized into three parts. The first part “A Troubling Tradition,” is a fairly chronological documentation of the medical exploitation blacks were subjected to from the early colonies until the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study in 1932. The second part “The Usual Subjects,” forgoes chronology to focus on certain at risk groups such as children and prisoners. The final part “Race Technology, and Medicine,” focuses on modern as well as future issues like genetics research and bioterrorism.

The continual theme in the book was the inherent belief both on a conscious and sub conscious level that the lives of blacks were not as valuable as their white counterparts. Instead they became dehumanized vessels more useful as guinea pigs for untested medications and through autopsy a trove of medical information for future studies. The numerous tales like that of Casper Yeagin, sixty-eight year old a man who went missing in Washington D.C. for over a month only to be found at Howard Medical School dissection table. Deeper investigation revealed numerous clerical errors that highlighted the systematic failures between the police departments and the local hospital system in properly managing and identifying unknown black patients.(115) The Tuskegee Syphilis Study also engaged in similar acts, coordinating with local healthcare providers and the federal government to prevent men from receiving treatment to maintain the study after the advent of penicillin as a treatment option. They went as far to offer free burial services to gain access to the corpses for autopsy.(164) Even in contemporary times the pattern continues, James Quinn a middle age black man famous from receiving an experimental artificial heart made by AbioCor in 2001. He like most of the other thirteen patients in the study had died within a year of receiving the heart transplant, suffering from a myriad of health complications resulting from the new mechanical heart. The important factor in the study was that 33 percent of the recipients were black although African Americans only make up 12 percent of the population.(349) The overrepresentation of blacks in the study stoked fears within the black community whether the study was for the benefit of the patients or simply a testing ground for perfecting experimental technology to be later used on majority white patients.

Washington was able to make a forceful argument that African American’s iatrophobia was indeed legitimate and not the result of rampant paranoia. She carefully notes that while not all judgments against the medical community are correct or helpful, the accusations by blacks come from generations of mistreatment and exploitation. Despite the overt opposition from individuals and institutions within the medical community in researching her book, Washington was able to employ a wide range of sources including legal documents, scientific journals, and secondary literature. In addition Washington herself took several premed courses including immunology and toxicology to increase her understanding of medical literature. Medical Apartheid stands apart from the previous historical works like The History of Negro Medicine, by Herbert Morais; An American Health Dilemma, by Drs. Linda Clayton and Michael Byrd; or Bones in the Basement, by Robert Blakely and Judith Harrington that had either too general or narrow in scope to accurately document the exploitation suffered by blacks. Her work is one of a few that attempts to provide a comprehensive history of the racial nature of medical research.

While the methods employed by the medical community have changed for the better from the barbaric practices of J. Marion Sims and the black grave robber Grandison Harris work must still be done. The forms of exploitation have become more intricate and subtle even to the researchers themselves. The circumvention on parental consent and the use of dense medical jargon are some of the newer tactics of unethical researchers. Experiments based on faulty race based assumptions in urban areas devoid of diversity still pose a threat in contemporary times. Despite the generations of abuse suffered by blacks, across the nation skillful doctors and researchers are able to overcome some of the apprehension many blacks have towards medical field. There is still hope available for the future as increased efforts are being undertaken to improve diversity within the medical field as well as the lessons learned from previous generations cause scientist to remain vigilant to the pitfalls of unbridled research.

[[Category:Twentieth Century United States]]
[[Category:Wikify]]
[[Category:Book Summaries]]
[[Category:Harriet A. Washington]]

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present

2014-10-27T19:17:37Z

Dramin: Blanked the page

Medical Apartheid

2014-10-27T19:16:16Z

Dramin:

Medical Apartheid

2014-10-27T19:13:17Z

Dramin: Created page with "{{Infobox book | name = Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present | author = Harri..."

Twentieth Century United States

2014-10-27T19:12:07Z

Dramin:

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present

2014-10-27T18:42:01Z

Dramin:

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present

2014-10-27T18:05:52Z

Dramin: Created page with "{{Infobox book | name = Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present | author = Harri..."

User:Dramin

2014-10-26T22:44:14Z

Dramin:

User:Dramin

2014-10-26T22:43:43Z

Dramin:

User:Dramin

2014-10-26T22:38:42Z

Dramin: Created page with "{{Infobox book | name = Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present | author = Harri..."

File:Medical Apartheid.jpg

2014-10-26T22:38:05Z

Dramin: