Book ID: CBB078647668

Burdens of War: Creating the United States Veterans Health System (2017)

unapi

Adler, Jessica L. (Author)


Johns Hopkins University Press


Publication Date: 2017
Physical Details: 368
Language: English

How have Americans grappled with the moral and financial issues of veterans’ health care? In the World War I era, veterans fought for a unique right: access to government-sponsored health care. In the process, they built a pillar of American social policy. Burdens of War explores how the establishment of the veterans’ health system marked a reimagining of modern veterans’ benefits and signaled a pathbreaking validation of the power of professionalized institutional medical care.Adler reveals that a veterans’ health system came about incrementally, amid skepticism from legislators, doctors, and army officials concerned about the burden of long-term obligations, monetary or otherwise, to ex-service members. She shows how veterans’ welfare shifted from centering on pension and domicile care programs rooted in the nineteenth century to direct access to health services. She also traces the way that fluctuating ideals about hospitals and medical care influenced policy at the dusk of the Progressive Era; how race, class, and gender affected the health-related experiences of soldiers, veterans, and caregivers; and how interest groups capitalized on a tense political and social climate to bring about change.The book moves from the 1910s―when service members requested better treatment, Congress approved new facilities and increased funding, and elected officials expressed misgivings about who should have access to care―to the 1930s, when the economic crash prompted veterans to increasingly turn to hospitals for support while bureaucrats, politicians, and doctors attempted to rein in the system. By the eve of World War II, the roots of what would become the country’s largest integrated health care system were firmly planted and primed for growth. Drawing readers into a critical debate about the level of responsibility America bears for wounded service members, Burdens of War is a unique and moving case study.

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Reviewed By

Review Susan L. Smith (2019) Review of "Burdens of War: Creating the United States Veterans Health System". American Historical Review (pp. 273-274). unapi

Review Bobby A. Wintermute (Spring 2018) Review of "Burdens of War: Creating the United States Veterans Health System". Business History Review (pp. 203-205). unapi

Review Douglas Craig (2019) Review of "Burdens of War: Creating the United States Veterans Health System". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (pp. 476-478). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB078647668/

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Authors & Contributors
Daniel E. Dawes
Chanoff, David
David Satcher
Petralia, Paolo
Macciò, Alberto
Weindling, Paul
Concepts
Public health
Medicine and society
Health care
Health
Medicine and politics
Medicine
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
21st century
18th century
20th century, late
20th century, early
Places
United States
Latin America
Philadelphia, PA
Genoa (Italy)
Guatemala
Americas
Institutions
Association of Minority Health Professions Schools (AMHPS)
American Red Cross
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