CE Rosenberg. 437 pages. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr; 1995. $16.95. ISBN 0-8018-5082-7. Order phone 800-537-5487.
This scholarly but readable history of how our hospitals developed from the early 19th to the early 20th century is now available in paperback. It should be read by every physician who would like to have a historical perspective on the forces that can and should shape medical care. Such a perspective is, unfortunately, rare in contemporary debates on medical care in the United States. Two of Rosenberg's themes particularly merit attention: the sense of community responsibility for health services that still flourished in the United States through the 19th century and the clashes between professional and administrative interests that are still a growing problem.
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