Medical Apartheid - Harriet A. Washington

Medical Apartheid

By Harriet A. Washington

  • Release Date: 2008-01-08
  • Genre: History
4.5 Score: 4.5 (From 70 Ratings)

Description

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • The first full history of Black America’s shocking mistreatment as unwilling and unwitting experimental subjects at the hands of the medical establishment. No one concerned with issues of public health and racial justice can afford not to read this masterful book.

"[Washington] has unearthed a shocking amount of information and shaped it into a riveting, carefully documented book." —New York Times

From the era of slavery to the present day, starting with the earliest encounters between Black Americans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, Medical Apartheid 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. 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.

Reviews

  • Great read!

    5
    By Lady Abstract
    This book is important for all ages. Everyone should read it as a required book for schools across America.
  • A Masterpiece!!!

    5
    By abuadamin
    This is unquestionably a canonical volume of African-American history. Very important to read!
  • An Important Work

    5
    By Krumann
    A must read for anyone truly interested in history.
  • Medical Aparthied

    5
    By ElmiraTea
    Expertly done. Everyone should read this book. Knowledge that is both informative and useful for school reports. A must have for your history shelf.

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