{"product_id":"imagining-health-medicine-social-protest-and-modern-american-literature-paperback","title":"Imagining Health: Medicine, Social Protest, and Modern American Literature - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eIra Halpern\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA surprising look at how American writers envision a more equitable healthcare system\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In the United States, a deep suspicion of professional medical expertise is becoming increasingly prominent. Meanwhile, many arguments for health justice take a highly critical view of medical authority, even rejecting it entirely. In the early to mid-twentieth century, alternatively, as medicine rapidly professionalized, Americans came to hold the medical establishment in a particularly high regard, while many saw how it could play a crucial role in progressive politics. In this period, technologies developed, specializations grew, and medical education became standardized. With this process came inequities, as marginalized populations struggled to access the highest levels of care. Literary writers confronting social ills through their work included critiques of this new system in their writing, Ira Halpern argues. Without abandoning professional medicine, they called for alternative systems of care that could better serve diverse populations. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Halpern examines the work of several writers--including Robert Herrick, Wallace Thurman, Frank Slaughter, Charles Chesnutt, Walter White, Ralph Ellison, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Upton Sinclair, Stephen Crane, and Edith Wharton--to demonstrate how American writing from this period embedded a critical look at healthcare within other elements of progressive politics, from racial protest and women's rights to disability justice and counter-capitalist viewpoints. Placing this writing into historical context, in terms of medical and scientific developments as well as traditions of social protest, Halpern reveals the efforts of these writers to envision better alternative trajectories for a quickly evolving medical establishment that left too many Americans without reliable care.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIRA HALPERN\u003c\/b\u003e is a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) postdoctoral fellow\u003ci\u003e. \u003c\/i\u003eHis scholarship has appeared in \u003ci\u003eLiterature and Medicine\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eAmerican Literature\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 216\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.41 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e January 12, 2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51978245800237,"sku":"9781625349118","price":52.44,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0938\/3185\/6429\/files\/QUd6VY97NB9781625349118.webp?v=1775801241","url":"https:\/\/ishookbooks.com\/products\/imagining-health-medicine-social-protest-and-modern-american-literature-paperback","provider":"iShook Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}