Note from the Book Review Editor

John Kastor's book, Governance of Teaching Hospitals: Turmoil at Penn and Hopkins, concerns the trials and tribulations of two of the nation's leading academic medical centers during the 1990s. Dr. Kastor at that time was the Chairman of Medicine at the University of Maryland, so he perhaps had greater access to the many players at these and other institutions than most academic writers.

Methodologically, Dr. Kastor created his book from interviews with over 260 individuals at the University of Pennsylvania and at Johns Hopkins. Perceptions differed widely, depending on the individuals and their positions in the several academic, clinical, teaching, and administrative hierarchies. One potential danger of such an approach is central to John Godfrey Saxe's famous fable, "The Blind Men and the Elephant," in which six blind men of Indostan unsuccessfully attempt to describe the elephant to each other's satisfaction. Another is that the selection of what should be emphasized reflects another perception, that of Dr. Kastor. But such are the problems of the historian's craft.

We thought it would be interesting to have this book reviewed from two different perspectives. Stanford J. Goldblatt, a partner at the Chicago law firm Winston and Strawn, is a member of the Board of Trustees of both the University of Chicago and of the University of Chicago Hospitals and Health Systems. Michael C. Riordan is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the University of Chicago Hospitals and Health System.

We would welcome e-mails or letters to the editor about this topic. We hope that you will join in this critical discussion.