The Word as Scalpel

Medical Sociology is now an established subdiscipline in both medicine and sociology. This book traces the intellectual and institutional evolution of the field in relation to antecedents of the past 2000 years and developments in American sociology and medicine since the turn of the century. Drawing on his own experience as a participant and witness as well as from diverse fields, Samuel W. Bloom provides an engaging account of the ongoing search for knowledge about the relationship between illness, medicine, and society.