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Healing a Divided Nation
How the American Civil War Revolutionized Western Medicine
Published by Pegasus Books
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
Table of Contents
About The Book
A profound and insightful investigation into how the American Civil War transformed modern medicine.
At the start of the Civil War, the medical field in America was rudimentary, unsanitary, and woefully underprepared to address what would become the bloodiest conflict on U.S. soil. However, in this historic moment of pivotal social and political change, medicine was also fast evolving to meet the needs of the time. Unprecedented strides were made in the science of medicine, and as women and African Americans were admitted into the field for the first time.
The Civil War marked a revolution in healthcare as a whole, laying the foundations for the system we know today. In Healing a Divided Nation, Carole Adrienne will track this remarkable and bloody transformation in its cultural and historical context, illustrating how the advancements made in these four years reverberated throughout the western world for years to come.
Analyzing the changes in education, society, humanitarianism, and technology in addition to the scientific strides of the period lends Healing a Divided Nation a uniquely wide lens to the topic, expanding the legacy of the developments made. The echoes of Civil War medicine are in every ambulance, every vaccination, every woman who holds a paying job, and in every Black university graduate. Those echoes are in every response of the International and American Red Cross and they are in the recommended international protocol for the treatment of prisoners of war and wounded soldiers.
Beginning with the state of medicine at the outset of the war, when doctors did not even know about sterilizing their tools, Adrienne illuminates the transformation in American healthcare through primary source texts that document the lives and achievements of the individuals who pioneered these changes in medicine and society. The story that ensues is one of American innovation and resilience in the face of unparalleled violence, adding a new dimension to the legacy of the Civil War.
At the start of the Civil War, the medical field in America was rudimentary, unsanitary, and woefully underprepared to address what would become the bloodiest conflict on U.S. soil. However, in this historic moment of pivotal social and political change, medicine was also fast evolving to meet the needs of the time. Unprecedented strides were made in the science of medicine, and as women and African Americans were admitted into the field for the first time.
The Civil War marked a revolution in healthcare as a whole, laying the foundations for the system we know today. In Healing a Divided Nation, Carole Adrienne will track this remarkable and bloody transformation in its cultural and historical context, illustrating how the advancements made in these four years reverberated throughout the western world for years to come.
Analyzing the changes in education, society, humanitarianism, and technology in addition to the scientific strides of the period lends Healing a Divided Nation a uniquely wide lens to the topic, expanding the legacy of the developments made. The echoes of Civil War medicine are in every ambulance, every vaccination, every woman who holds a paying job, and in every Black university graduate. Those echoes are in every response of the International and American Red Cross and they are in the recommended international protocol for the treatment of prisoners of war and wounded soldiers.
Beginning with the state of medicine at the outset of the war, when doctors did not even know about sterilizing their tools, Adrienne illuminates the transformation in American healthcare through primary source texts that document the lives and achievements of the individuals who pioneered these changes in medicine and society. The story that ensues is one of American innovation and resilience in the face of unparalleled violence, adding a new dimension to the legacy of the Civil War.
Product Details
- Publisher: Pegasus Books (August 2, 2022)
- Length: 364 pages
- ISBN13: 9781639361861
Raves and Reviews
Praise for Healing a Divided Nation:
"In the mid-nineteenth century, every aspect of our country was being transformed. In this compendium of the luminaries of the age, Carole Adrienne sympathetically details how the horrors of the Civil War shone a light upon our medical and scientific ignorance, fostering a medical revolution in the West. Alongside this technical metamorphosis, a stunning cultural shift occurred, wherein women and Black Americans achieved new prominence that would have been impossible without war. Understand the characters in this work and you’ll see America in a new light!” —David Schneider, author of The Invention of Surgery
"A comprehensive and captivating account of the seismic transformation of Western medicine caused by the American Civil War. The countless medical breakthroughs resulting from the war—including improved hospitals, advanced surgical techniques, and new opportunities for female and African American health professionals—touched every facet of American society. In telling this epic story, Carole Adrienne presents fascinating and gripping details on every page." —John Reeves, author of A Fire in the Wilderness: The First Battle Between Ulysses S. Grant and Ro
"Healing a Divided Nation is a well-written, comprehensive look at medicine during the Civil War that brought American medicine 'out of the medical Middle Ages.' This book tells the stories of the innovations, personnel, and the legacy that is Civil War Medicine." —Peter J. D’Onofrio, Ph. D. President Emeritus Society of Civil War Surgeons
"The phrase “war is hell” has become such a trope that we sometimes forget how literally true it is. Carole Adrienne won’t let us forget it. While telling the fascinating stories of heroic physicians and nurses innovating on Civil War battlefields or describing how that same war brought about long-overdue social change, she reminds us of the brutal irony that it can take the hell of war for humans to make the kinds of progress that “should” be achieved without violence and, certainly without death." —David Blistein, Author of Opium How an Ancient Flower Shaped and Poisoned Our World
"Documentary filmmaker Adrienne’s excellent history distinguishes itself with short biographies of unfamiliar or unsung figures of Civil War–era medicine, especially women and Black people."
– Library Journal
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