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Medical apartheid : the dark history of medical experimentation on Black Americans from colonial times to the present / Harriet A. Washington.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Anchor Books, 2008Edition: 1st Anchor books (Broadway Books) editionDescription: x, 501 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 21 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780767915472
  • 076791547X
Subject(s):
Contents:
Introduction: The American Janus of medicine and race -- Part 1. A troubling tradition. Southern discomfort : medical exploitation on the plantation ; Profitable wonders : antebellum medical experimentation with slaves and freedmen ; Circus Africanus : the popular display of Black bodies ; The surgical theater : Black bodies in the antebellum clinic ; The restless dead : anatomical dissection and display ; Diagnosis: freedom : the Civil War, Emancipation, and Fin de Siècle medical research ; "A notoriously syphilis-soaked race" : what really happened at Tuskegee? -- Part 2. The usual subjects. The black stork : the eugenic control of African American reproduction ; Nuclear winter : radiation experiments on African Americans ; Caged subjects : research on Black prisoners ; The children's crusade : research targets young African Americans -- Part 3. Race, technology, and medicine. Genetic perdition : the rise of molecular bias ; Infection and inequity : illness as crime ; The machine age : African American martyrs to surgical technology ; Aberrant wars : American bioterrorism targets Blacks -- Epilogue: Medical research with blacks today.
  • 2007 National Book Critics Circle award winner for nonfiction.
Summary: The first comprehensive history of medical experimentation on African Americans. Starting with the earliest encounters between Africans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, it details the way both slaves and freedmen were used in hospitals for experiments conducted without a hint of informed consent--a tradition that continues today within some black populations. It shows how the pseudoscience of eugenics and social Darwinism was used to justify experimental exploitation and shoddy medical treatment of blacks, and a view that they were biologically inferior, oversexed, and unfit for adult responsibilities. New details about the government's Tuskegee experiment are revealed, as are similar, less well-known medical atrocities conducted by the government, the armed forces, and private institutions. This book reveals the hidden underbelly of scientific research and makes possible, for the first time, an understanding of the roots of the African American health deficit.--From publisher description.
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Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 174.28 W318 Available 33111010404800
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:



Medical Apartheid is the first and only comprehensive history of medical experimentation on African Americans. Starting with the earliest encounters between black Americans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, it details the ways both slaves and freedmen were used in hospitals for experiments conducted without their knowledge-a tradition that continues today within some black populations. It reveals how blacks have historically been prey to grave-robbing as well as unauthorized autopsies and dissections. Moving into the twentieth century, it shows how the pseudoscience of eugenics and social Darwinism was used to justify experimental exploitation and shoddy medical treatment of blacks, and the view that they were biologically inferior, oversexed, and unfit for adult responsibilities. Shocking new details about the government's notorious Tuskegee experiment are revealed, as are similar, less-well-known medical atrocities conducted by the government, the armed forces, prisons, and private institutions.

The product of years of prodigious research into medical journals and experimental reports long undisturbed, Medical Apartheid reveals the hidden underbelly of scientific research and makes possible, for the first time, an understanding of the roots of the African American health deficit. At last, it provides the fullest possible context for comprehending the behavioral fallout that has caused black Americans to view researchers-and indeed the whole medical establishment-with such deep distrust. No one concerned with issues of public health and racial justice can afford not to read Medical Apartheid , a masterful book that will stir up both controversy and long-needed debate.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 465-484) and index.

Introduction: The American Janus of medicine and race -- Part 1. A troubling tradition. Southern discomfort : medical exploitation on the plantation ; Profitable wonders : antebellum medical experimentation with slaves and freedmen ; Circus Africanus : the popular display of Black bodies ; The surgical theater : Black bodies in the antebellum clinic ; The restless dead : anatomical dissection and display ; Diagnosis: freedom : the Civil War, Emancipation, and Fin de Siècle medical research ; "A notoriously syphilis-soaked race" : what really happened at Tuskegee? -- Part 2. The usual subjects. The black stork : the eugenic control of African American reproduction ; Nuclear winter : radiation experiments on African Americans ; Caged subjects : research on Black prisoners ; The children's crusade : research targets young African Americans -- Part 3. Race, technology, and medicine. Genetic perdition : the rise of molecular bias ; Infection and inequity : illness as crime ; The machine age : African American martyrs to surgical technology ; Aberrant wars : American bioterrorism targets Blacks -- Epilogue: Medical research with blacks today.

The first comprehensive history of medical experimentation on African Americans. Starting with the earliest encounters between Africans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, it details the way both slaves and freedmen were used in hospitals for experiments conducted without a hint of informed consent--a tradition that continues today within some black populations. It shows how the pseudoscience of eugenics and social Darwinism was used to justify experimental exploitation and shoddy medical treatment of blacks, and a view that they were biologically inferior, oversexed, and unfit for adult responsibilities. New details about the government's Tuskegee experiment are revealed, as are similar, less well-known medical atrocities conducted by the government, the armed forces, and private institutions. This book reveals the hidden underbelly of scientific research and makes possible, for the first time, an understanding of the roots of the African American health deficit.--From publisher description.

"National Book Critics Circle award winner"--Cover.

2007 National Book Critics Circle award winner for nonfiction.

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