One Doctor's Fight to End an American Epidemic Goldberger's War chronicles one of the U.S. Public Health Service's most renowned heroes--an immigrant Jew who trained as a doctor at Bellevue, became an early recruit to the federal government's health service, and ended an American plague. And he did so by defying conventional wisdom, experimenting on humans, and telling the South precisely what it didn't want to hear. In this fine work, Alan Kraut shows why Dr. Goldberger's life became, quite literally, the stuff of Action Comic storyboards. On the front lines of the legendary public-health battles of the early 20th-century, he fought the epidemics that were then routinely sweeping the nation--typhoid, yellow fever, and the measels. After successfully confronting (and often contracting) the infectious diseases of his day, in 1914 he was assigned the mystery of pellagra, a disease whose cause and cure had eluded the world for centuries and was then afflicting tens of thousands of Americans every year, particularly in the emerging "New South." Dispatched to find a medical solution to what prevailing wisdom assumed was another infectious disease, Goldberger discovered its cause in a dietary deficiency and spent years conducting experiments (some on himself and family) to prove he was right. But finding the cause was just half the fight; its cure required nothing less than challenging the economy, culture, and politics of the entire South.

Goldberger's War: The Life and Work of a Public Health Crusader

Biographies & Memoirs

Kraut, Alan M.

Professionals & Academics

Hill and Wang

A fascinating exploration of how immigrants throughout American history have been blamed for spreading disease, from the Irish bringing in cholera to the Haitians spreading AIDS, offers a vivid and educational description of pseudo-medical bigotry and its effects.

Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, And The Immigrant Menace

Science & Math

Basic Books

This study traces the American tradition of the suspicion of immigrant populations spreading disease. From the cholera outbreak of the 1930s to the associations of Haitians and AIDS, the author shows how immigrant groups have been regularly slandered as carriers of particular diseases.

Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, and the Immigrant Menace

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Johns Hopkins University Press

Goldberger's War chronicles one of the U.S. Public Health Service's most renowned heroes--an immigrant Jew who trained as a doctor at Bellevue, became a young recruit to the federal government's health service, and ended an American plague. He did

Leaders & Notable People

Where were you born? Were you born at the Beth? Many thousands of Americans-Jewish and non-Jewish-were born at a hospital bearing the Star of David and named Beth Israel, Mount Sinai, or Montefiore. In the United States, health care has been bound closely to the religious impulse. Newark Beth Israel Hospital is a distinguished modern medical institution in New Jersey whose history opens a window on American health care, the immigrant experience, and urban life. Alan M. and Deborah A. Kraut tell the story of this important institution, illuminating the broader history of voluntary nonprofit hospitals created under religious auspices initially to serve poor immigrant communities. Like so many Jewish hospitals in the early half of the twentieth century, "the Beth" cared not only for its own community's poor and underprivileged, a responsibility grounded in the Jewish traditions of tzedakah ("justice") and tikkun olam ("to heal the world"), but for all Newarkers. Since it first opened its doors in 1902, the Beth has been an engine of social change. Jewish women activists and immigrant physicians founded an institution with a nonsectarian admissions policy and a welcome mat for physicians and nurses seeking opportunity denied them by anti-Semitism elsewhere. Research, too, flourished at the Beth. Here dedicated medical detectives did path-breaking research on the Rh blood factor and pacemaker development. When economic shortfalls and the Great Depression threatened the Beth's existence, philanthropic contributions from prominent Newark Jews such as Louis Bamberger and Felix Fuld, the efforts of women volunteers, and, later, income from well-insured patients saved the institution that had become the pride of the Jewish community. The Krauts tell the Beth Israel story against the backdrop of twentieth-century medical progress, Newark's tumultuous history, and the broader social and demographic changes altering the landscape of American cities. Today, the United States, in the midst of another great wave of immigration, once again faces the question of how to provide newcomers with culturally sensitive and economically accessible medical care. Covenant of Care will inform and inspire all those working to meet these demands, offering a compelling look at the creative ways that voluntary hospitals navigated similar challenges throughout the twentieth century.

Covenant of Care: Newark Beth Israel and the Jewish Hospital in America

Kraut, Professor Deborah

Community & Culture

Rutgers University Press

This history of the "new immigration" weighs the many factors that prompted the decision to leave the old world. Though the designation "new immigrant" generally refers to southern and eastern Europeans only, this volume also includes the Chinese and Japanese who arrived in the period from 1880-1921. Kraut argues that immigration to America was but one of the many choices available to the immigrants, and that individual aptitude and desires were just as influential as cultural, social, and familial pressures to find a better life. The immigrants' impact on America and their new countrymen is also considered. This title includes a very good, 32-page photographic essay.

The Huddled Masses: The Immigrant in American Society, 1880-1921

History

Harlan Davidson

In the two decades since the first edition of this tremendously successful book appeared, a vast scholarship undertaken by historians, sociologists, economists, and cultural anthropologists has altered the contours of American immigration history, challenging scholars to rethink long-held perspectives. Insights derived from these diverse sources enrich the second edition of this popular text and have prompted important changes in emphasis and interpretation. Thoughtfully written to help student readers appreciate the varied pre- and post-migration experiences of the many groups and individuals who came to, and came to shape, the United States during this busy period, The Huddled Masses is essential reading for all enrolled in the United States history survey as well as specialized courses in Immigration and Ethnic Studies.

The Huddled Masses: The Immigrant in American Society, 1880-1921 (The American History Series)

Americas

Wiley/Blackwell

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kraut, Alan M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Kraut, Alan M.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kraut, Alan M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Goldberger's War: The Life and Work of a Public Health Crusader

Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, And The Immigrant Menace

Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, and the Immigrant Menace

Goldberger's War: The Life and Work of a Public Health Crusader

Covenant of Care: Newark Beth Israel and the Jewish Hospital in America

The Huddled Masses: The Immigrant in American Society, 1880-1921

The Huddled Masses: The Immigrant in American Society, 1880-1921 (The American History Series)