BOOK REVIEW: Bellevue: Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America's Most Storied Hospital by David Oshinsky

It might seem a 370+ page book is overkill for a history of a single New York City Hospital, but Bellevue: Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America’s Most Storied Hospital by David Oshinsky, was a nice surprise. I got the book from my library to see what it had to say about a specific moment in its history, but started reading from the beginning just because, and ended up reading the whole thing.

The book covers the history of the hospital from when it was little more than a pesthouse for yellow fever victims in the Colonial period to a modern-day facility equipped to deal with Ebola.

More than a history of New York’s most resilient public hospital and teaching facility for new physicians and nurses, Bellevue is a history of medicine in America in microcosm. Well-researched, readable, and chock full of interesting anecdotes, this book held my interest from start to finish.