Remaking the American patient how Madison Avenue and modern medicine turned patients into consumers
"In a work that spans the twentieth century, Nancy Tomes questions the popular--and largely unexamined--idea that in order to get good health care, people must learn to shop for it. This book explores the consequences of the consumer economy and American medicine having come of age at exactly t...
| Main Author: | Tomes, Nancy, 1952- (Author) |
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| Format: | Books Print Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Chapel Hill :
University of North Carolina Press,
[2016]
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| Series: |
Studies in social medicine
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: |
"In a work that spans the twentieth century, Nancy Tomes questions the popular--and largely unexamined--idea that in order to get good health care, people must learn to shop for it. This book explores the consequences of the consumer economy and American medicine having come of age at exactly the same time. Tracing the robust development of advertising, marketing, and public relations within the medical profession and the vast realm we now think of as "health care," Tomes considers what it means to be a "good" patient. As she shows, this history of the co-evolution of medicine and consumer culture tells us much about our current predicament over health care in the United States. Understanding where the shopping model came from, why it was so long resisted in medicine, and why it finally triumphed in the late twentieth century helps explain why, despite striking changes that seem to empower patients, so many Americans remain unhappy and confused about their status as patients today."--Jacket. |
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| Physical Description: |
xviii, 538 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm. |
| Awards: |
Bancroft Prize in American History and Diplomacy, 2017 |
| Bibliography: |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 473-518) and index. |
| ISBN: |
9781469622774 1469622777 |
| Author Notes: |
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