Careers in Anesthesiology: Autobiographical Memoirs, and: Careers in Anesthesiology: An Autobiographical Memoir (review)

B. Raymond Fink and Kathryn E. McGoldrick, eds. Careers in Anesthesiology: Autobiographical Memoirs. Vol. 4: Nicholas M. Greene, "The Pleasures of Anesthesiology"; Erwin Lear, "A Kinder and Gentler Era"; Jerome H. Modell, "Only in America"; and Leroy D. Vandam, "On the Craggy Path to Anesthesiology." Park Ridge, Ill.: Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, 2000. x + 183 pp. Ill. $40.00 (1-889-595-04-7).

B. Raymond Fink and Kathryn E. McGoldrick, eds. Careers in Anesthesiology: An Autobiographical Memoir.Vol. 5: Peter J. Safar. Park Ridge, Ill.: Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, 2000. x + 379 pp. Ill. $45.00 (1-889-595-06-3).

Careers in Anesthesiology is a series being published by the Wood Library-Museum in an effort to capture the memoirs of distinguished anesthesiologists and document their contributions to the specialty in the twentieth century. The fourth volume in the series contains the autobiographies of Nicholas Greene (emeritus professor and former chair at Yale), Erwin Lear (emeritus professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and former chair at Beth Israel Medical Center), Jerome Modell (professor and former chair at the University of Florida), and Leroy Vandam (emeritus professor at Harvard and former chair at the Peter Bent Brigham); volume 5 contains that of Peter Safar (emeritus professor and former chair at the University of Pittsburgh). Between the pages of these volumes is a microcosm of anesthesiology in the latter half of the twentieth century, with a large emphasis on the development of the academic practice of the specialty.

Each autobiography stresses something different about the development of anesthesiology. However, there are themes that are similar in all biographies. The military played a large role in the career development of these men. For example, Nicholas Greene entered the Navy in 1947, and spent two years as a general practitioner; it was also during this time, as the junior surgeon forced to give anesthetics, that he became enamored with the field. Erwin Lear used the G.I. Bill to help finance his medical education. Jerome Modell joined the Navy to help support his family during residency; being stationed in Florida, and caring for a near-drowning victim while in the armed forces, led to his lifelong research into the physiologic changes of drowning and critical care medicine. Leroy Vandam also served in the Army during World War II, but was medically discharged.

The strengths of volume 4, and indeed of the series, are the individuals selected to produce their autobiographies. The ways in which each individual arrived at anesthesiology as a career choice make for fascinating reading. In many ways it is a mirror of the experience of physicians in mid-twentieth-century American medicine. Erwin Lear, for example, entered anesthesiology because of the experiences of his uncles who were in the specialty. Also, these autobiographies clearly demonstrate the opportunities available to anesthesiologists in the 1950s and 1960s. Shortly after completing anesthesiology residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital in the program headed by Henry K. Beecher, Greene became an associate professor and chair at the University of Rochester in upstate New York; a scant three years later, at the ripe age of thirty-three, he accepted the position of head of anesthesiology at Yale. This theme of early substantial responsibility is constant throughout the four autobiographies and again reflects the experience of anesthesiology as a whole.

A great shortcoming of this type of book is the lack of historical context. Unless one is completely familiar with the history of anesthesiology in the latter half of the twentieth century, even the criteria used to select individuals for inclusion in volume 4 are not readily apparent; and the editors' introduction does little to make this clear. Nicholas Greene, for example, is the only person to be the editor-in-chief of both major journals of anesthesiology consecutively, yet in his autobiography that fact...