Book Notes
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUPThis collection contains essays by many prominent historians of medicine, as well as by promising younger scholars in the field. The editors have been assisted by "area editors," whose interests span the world, and the result is a collection of 1,140 biographies written by 384 different contributors. The first volume contains, in addition to the biographical entries, an introduction by the editors, editorial notes that explain editorial decisions and acknowledge antecedents of the current collection, a list of entries and abbreviations, and a set of introductory essays that encompass medical traditions globally. Each volume also contains lists of individuals by country, by fields of activity, and by birth and death dates.
This DMB is intended to complement the existing DSB (Dictionary of Scientific Biography). As the authors write, "Since we have focused on medical practice, the overlap is small. . . . Time and again, readers can find biographies of health professionals of real national importance, whose contributions deserve to be appreciated by a larger audience. To read these volumes . . . is to appreciate the complexity and richness of health, medicine, and medical care throughout the world" (p. xxv).
This special issue marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of Dynamis. Marcos Cueto is guest editor for the first section, while Iris Borowy and Nadav Davidovitch are guest editors for the second.
Authors of the essays on Latin America are Dr. Cueto ("Health Institutions and Power in Latin America"), Steven Palmer ("Historical Sketch of State Medicine in Central America"), Adrián Carbonetti ("The Shaping of the Argentina Health System: The Case of Córdoba Province, 1880–1926"), Ernesto Aréchiga Córdoba ("Health Dictatorship, Education and Hygiene Promotion in Revolutionary Mexico, 1917–1934"), Ana María Carrillo ("Public Health and Power in Mexico during Cardenism: 1934–1940"), Maria Terresa Villela Bandiera de Mello and [End Page 242] Aline Lopes de Lacerda ("Images of Public Health: The Institutionalisation of the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz in Brazil"), Gilberto Hochman ("Political Changes and Public Health Reforms in Brazil: The First Vargas Government, 1930–1945"), André Luiz Vieira de Campos ("Expansion of State Authority and the Special Public Health Service in Brazil, 1942–1960"), Enrique Beldarraín Chaple ("Change and Revolution: The Rise of the National Health System in Cuba, 1959–1970"), and Anne-Emanuelle Birn ("Desperately Seeking Decentralisation: Mexican Health Policies in Two Periods of Reform: The 1920–30s and the 1980s").
"Health in Palestine and the Middle Eastern Context" begins with an introduction by the guest editors, followed by essays by the following contributors: Miri Shefer ("Old Patterns, New Meaning: The 1845 Hospital of Bezm-i Alem in Istanbul"), Sandy Sufian ("Re-imagining Palestine: Scientific Knowledge and Malaria Control in Mandatory Palestine"), Aref Abu-Rabia ("Indigenous Practices among Palestinians for Healing Eye Diseases and Inflammations"), Rakefet Zalashik ("Psychiatry, Ethnicity and Migration: The Case of Palestine, 1920–1948"), Iris Borowy ("Health in Interwar Palestine: Ethnic Realities and International Views"), Tamara Aberbuch-Friedlander ("Disease Dynamics across Political Borders: The Case of Rabies in Israel and the Surrounding Countries").
