Healing a Divided Nation: How the American Civil War Revolutionized Western Medicine by Carole Adrienne | 2022 | Pegasus Books | Hardcover $28.95
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.
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.
Disclosure statement: I received a digital ARC of this title from the publisher.
This book got my attention for a couple of reasons. First, as a librarian for a medical education institution I’m professionally interested in the historical context of my work. Second, I’ve long had a casual interest in 19th century history; I was once even a docent for our local museum’s special exhibit on the Civil War.
Thanks to rapid adoption of innovations in firearm technology, the Civil War resulted in more American deaths than WWI, WWII, and the Vietnam War combined. New weapons such as rifles and rapid-fire machine guns inflicted casualties on an unprecedented scale, while medical treatment for the injuries they caused was still stuck in the age of muskets and sabres.
But it wasn’t just the bullets a soldier had to watch out for — approximately half of their deaths were due to illnesses like tuberculosis and typhoid, the result of unsanitary living conditions and contaminated food and water. Doctors in this era before germ theory were almost helpless to combat, much less prevent such diseases. Our modern conceptions of organized hospitals, professional nursing, and officially sanctioned humanitarian aid were still new to the world; it would take a disaster on a scale never seen before to induce rapid progress in these fields.
I learned several things about the Civil War from this book, quite apart from the history of medicine specifically. For example, I found it especially interesting that Abraham Lincoln was fascinated by mechanics and kept up with all the latest technological innovations, even going so far as to personally test newly invented or improved firearms that might be useful in the war effort.
I hope the book might have one more pass at thorough editing before its final version for publication, mainly because there are several instances of awkward repetition of facts. This kind of disjointed repetition of ideas within the span of a few pages gives the impression of disorganization, or perhaps of a student aiming to meet a high word count goal.
I believe that the organization of each chapter could also have been helped by breaking them up into sections. For example, in the first chapter’s description of the state of medical science at the beginning of the Civil War, the narrative meanders from anesthesia to vaccination to dentistry to veterinary practice with tenuous to nonexistent connection between topics; a mere line break or subheading could serve to reduce the reader’s cognitive whiplash.
The author has clearly done a ton of research — as evidenced by the 12-page bibliography which includes both contemporary scholarly and historical primary sources, which I admire. And the book is certainly informative, even fascinating at times. It includes a wide range of topics, from innovations in artificial limbs for amputees to the development of modern hospitals to the origins of the International Red Cross.
I particularly liked the chapter on women’s role in medical care during the Civil War; this time period was a turning point in the field of nursing, when professionalization and more rigorous training transformed the previously irregular job into a respectable occupation — and what’s more, an occupation that was acceptable for women outside of homemaking.
All in all, I think this is a comprehensive (albeit overly verbose, which is really saying something coming from me) summary of the American Civil War’s impact on modern medical practice. Check it out from your local library after it is published next month if you’re into healthcare history or if your idea of fun is watching documentaries or visiting museum exhibits about the Civil War.
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Publication information: Adrienne, Carole. Healing a divided nation: How the American Civil War revolutionized Western medicine. New York, NY: Pegasus Books, 2022. EPUB.
Source: ARC provided by publisher via Edelweiss.
Disclaimer: I am not compensated, monetarily or otherwise, for reviews of books or other products.
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