Guiding us to better communication about illness, treatment, and health through simple art practices Living at the intersection of medicine and art, medical illustration is a field that is not well understood by most--especially by physicians and other healthcare practitioners. In this comprehensive and practical guide to medical illustration, pediatric surgeon François I. Luks provides a useful overview of the field and explains its essential function in facilitating true communication between healthcare providers and their patients. MedSpeak Illuminated: The Art and Practice of Medical Illustration begins with a history of the field, including some of its historical controversies and darker aspects, such as the relative lack of diversity in medical illustrations. Currently, Luks asserts, an increased recognition that medical illustration has long been complicit in promoting a single (white, male) view of health and disease has begun to result in changes to practice and content. He argues that increasing diversity and equity--in illustration and among illustrators--is ultimately good for our health. As he moves forward to describe its place in our current healthcare systems and educational programs, Luks also points to the scientific breakthroughs specifically made by illustrators. In addition, he highlights trends in medical education that emphasize humanism and compassion, thus making the need for better methods of communication even more urgent. MedSpeak Illuminated offers simple advice and techniques that can be followed by even the nonartists among us to use illustration in medical settings as part of our conversations. Like the illuminated manuscripts of old, MedSpeak Illuminated provides visual components for better and deeper understanding, an invaluable resource for students, practitioners, and all those committed to becoming better communicators and more caring professionals.

Acclaimed author Gail Jarrow, recipient of a 2019 Robert F. Sibert Honor Award, explores the science and grisly history of U.S. Civil War medicine, using actual medical cases and first-person accounts by soldiers, doctors, and nurses. The Civil War took the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans and left countless others with disabling wounds and chronic illnesses. Bullets and artillery shells shattered soldiers' bodies, while microbes and parasites killed twice as many men as did the battles. Yet from this tragic four-year conflict came innovations that enhanced medical care in the United States. With striking detail, this nonfiction book reveals battlefield rescues, surgical techniques, medicines, and patient care, celebrating the men and women of both the North and South who volunteered to save lives.

This social and cultural history of Civil War medicine and science sheds important light on the question of why and how anti-Black racism survived the destruction of slavery. During the war, white Northerners promoted ideas about Black inferiority under the guise of medical and scientific authority. In particular, the Sanitary Commission and Army medical personnel conducted wartime research aimed at proving Black medical and biological inferiority. They not only subjected Black soldiers and refugees from slavery to substandard health care but also scrutinized them as objects of study. This mistreatment of Black soldiers and civilians extended after life to include dissection, dismemberment, and disposal of the Black war dead in unmarked or mass graves and medical waste pits. Simultaneously, white medical and scientific investigators enhanced their professional standing by establishing their authority on the science of racial difference and hierarchy. Drawing on archives of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, recollections of Civil War soldiers and medical workers, and testimonies from Black Americans, Leslie A. Schwalm exposes the racist ideas and practices that shaped wartime medicine and science. Painstakingly researched and accessibly written, this book helps readers understand the persistence of anti-Black racism and health disparities during and after the war.

Honors the memory of the great Confederate general in an exploration of his post-Civil War years.

The author "brings to life the courage, recklessness, heartbreak, and deprivation of the (Shenandoah) Valley Campaign and the battles to the east of the Blue Ridge" ("The Commercial Appeal"). 60 photos.