
Bellevue
Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America's Most Storied Hospital
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Narrated by:
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Fred Sanders
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By:
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David Oshinsky
From a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian comes a riveting history of New York's iconic public hospital that charts the turbulent rise of American medicine.
Bellevue Hospital, on New York City's East Side, occupies a colorful and horrifying place in the public imagination: a den of mangled crime victims, vicious psychopaths, assorted derelicts, lunatics, and exotic-disease sufferers. In its two and a half centuries of service, there was hardly an epidemic or social catastrophe - or groundbreaking scientific advance - that did not touch Bellevue.
David Oshinsky, whose last book, Polio: An American Story, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, chronicles the history of America's oldest hospital and in so doing also charts the rise of New York to the nation's preeminent city, the path of American medicine from butchery and quackery to a professional and scientific endeavor, and the growth of a civic institution. From its origins in 1738 as an almshouse and pesthouse, Bellevue today is a revered public hospital bringing first-class care to anyone in need. With its diverse, ailing, and unprotesting patient population, the hospital was a natural laboratory for the nation's first clinical research. It treated tens of thousands of Civil War soldiers, launched the first civilian ambulance corps and the first nursing school for women, pioneered medical photography and psychiatric treatment, and spurred New York City to establish the country's first official board of health.
As medical technology advanced, "voluntary" hospitals began to seek out patients willing to pay for their care. For charity cases it was left to Bellevue to fill the void. The latter decades of the 20th century brought rampant crime, drug addiction, and homelessness to the nation's struggling cities - problems that called a public hospital's very survival into question. It took the AIDS crisis to cement Bellevue's enduring place as New York's ultimate safety net, the iconic hospital of last resort.
Lively, pause-resisting, fascinating, Bellevue is essential American history.
©2016 David Oshinsky (P)2016 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...




















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Highly recommended
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Wonderful history of Bellevue; not so great narration
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However, the last section of the book is phenomenal and super informative.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in medical or American history.
Grew on me!
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What a wonderful book!
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A fascinating insight into so many aspects of American history
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Thorough and gripping journey through history
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Well done!
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...are doing the impossible...for the ungrateful...
...by the time we get done here...we will be qualified...
...to do everything with nothing..."
( bellevue-NYU house staff bathroom wall - 1978 )
? are you intrigued by the inner workings of healthcare
? does the medical history of new york city fascinate you
? are the needs and problems of the poor important to you
if so, david oshinsky has written a throughly terrific book for you
it's the history of indigent medical care in a city constantly re-inventing itself
bellevue has been bravely performing that daunting task for 300 years
trauma, infectious disease, mental illness and drug rehab. predominate
bellevue develops a reputation as a place to train and "...see everything..."
jewish medical students, pushed out by quotas elsewhere, are welcome there
new yorkers are justifiably proud of of bellevue's history and accomplishments
but, as you'd expect, there is a sad undercurrent to all this self congratulation
NYC indifference and parsimony make heroic medical devotion a daily necessity
in the mid 1970's, i finished college ( pre-med ) 90 minutes north of NYC
many of my classmates interviewed and then trained at bellevue-NYU
NYC's impending bankruptcy had left the hospital an insolvent chaotic mess
then a 33 yo pregnant bellevue physician was raped and beaten to death in her office
a manhattan jury later voted 10-2 to absolved bellevue of negligence in her murder
for many of my longtime NYC physician friends, that was the last straw
bill deblasio ran for NYC mayor, in 2013, claiming that there were "...two cities..."
finance, art, entertainment, restaurants and wall street were one city
indigent immigrants, mentally ill drug addicts and the working poor were another
oshinsky tells the brave story "...of the willing..." who seek to care for that 2nd city
NYC is NOT America's leading medical city - Boston, Baltimore, SF etc. out pace it
bellevue's devotion and sacrifice are necessary due to NYC apathy and underfunding
tale of two cities
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It's well-researched, but it is not a dry read or performance. In fact, I found myself sneaking time away to read a chapter or two at a time. The hospital - and medicine itself - opened its doors to eccentric patients and physicians, cutting-edge and barbaric treatments, expensive construction and bureaucratic neglect.
If you're at all interested in New York City, history, medicine, or any combination, pick up this book!
History, Society, Medicine
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Bellevue and Medical History
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