eBook - PDF
Dying in the City of the Blues
Sickle Cell Anemia and the Politics of Race and Health
- 360 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF
About this book
This groundbreaking book chronicles the history of sickle cell anemia in the United States, tracing its transformation from an “invisible” malady to a powerful, yet contested, cultural symbol of African American pain and suffering.
Set in Memphis, home of one of the nation’s first sickle cell clinics, Dying in the City of the Blues reveals how the recognition, treatment, social understanding, and symbolism of the disease evolved in the twentieth century, shaped by the politics of race, region, health care, and biomedicine. Using medical journals, patients' accounts, black newspapers, blues lyrics, and many other sources, Keith Wailoo follows the disease and its sufferers from the early days of obscurity before sickle cell’s “discovery” by Western medicine; through its rise to clinical, scientific, and social prominence in the 1950s; to its politicization in the 1970s and 1980s. Looking forward, he considers the consequences of managed care on the politics of disease in the twenty-first century.
A rich and multilayered narrative, Dying in the City of the Blues offers valuable new insight into the African American experience, the impact of race relations and ideologies on health care, and the politics of science, medicine, and disease.
Set in Memphis, home of one of the nation’s first sickle cell clinics, Dying in the City of the Blues reveals how the recognition, treatment, social understanding, and symbolism of the disease evolved in the twentieth century, shaped by the politics of race, region, health care, and biomedicine. Using medical journals, patients' accounts, black newspapers, blues lyrics, and many other sources, Keith Wailoo follows the disease and its sufferers from the early days of obscurity before sickle cell’s “discovery” by Western medicine; through its rise to clinical, scientific, and social prominence in the 1950s; to its politicization in the 1970s and 1980s. Looking forward, he considers the consequences of managed care on the politics of disease in the twenty-first century.
A rich and multilayered narrative, Dying in the City of the Blues offers valuable new insight into the African American experience, the impact of race relations and ideologies on health care, and the politics of science, medicine, and disease.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
- Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
- Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Dying in the City of the Blues by Keith Wailoo in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Medicine & Medical Theory, Practice & Reference. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
These
images
of
sickled
cells
appeared
in
James
Herrick’s
1910
article
in
Archives
of
Internal
Medicine
and
in
countless
articles
since
then.
In
America
and
the
West,
the
new
disease
would
take
its
name
from
the
shape
of
these
cells.
In
African
cultures,
as
one
critic
later
noted,
the
names
given
the
disease
(such
as
‘‘Chwechweechwe’’)
reflected
the
patient’s
experience
of
recurrent
pain
rather
than
the
pathologist’s
fascination
with
cellular
morphology.
(Reproduced
from
Herrick,
‘‘Peculiar
Elon-
gated
and
Sickle-shaped
Red
Blood
Corpuscles
in
a
Case
of
Severe
Anemia,’’
Archives
of
Internal
Medicine
6
[1910]:
517)
Reverend
T.
O.
Fuller
(1867–1942),
pictured
here
ca.
1930,
reflected
the
modera-
tion
and
accommodation
and
the
ideals
of
racial
uplift
charateristic
of
many
Mem-
phis
black
pastors
in
the
Jim
Crow
era.
Such
ideas
often
brought
them
into
conflict
with
other
black
Memphians
and,
occasionally,
with
their
own
congregations.
(Re-
produced
from
T.
O.
Fuller,
The
Story
of
Church
Life
among
Negroes
[Memphis:
T.
O.
Fuller,
1938])
Table of contents
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction. Pain and Suffering in Memphis
- 1 Conjurors of Health in the New South
- 2 Race Pathologies, Apparent and Unseen
- 3 Remaking Jim Crow Medicine
- 4 The Commodification of Black Health
- 5 Sickled Cells, Black Identity, and the Limits of Liberalism
- 6 Promising Therapy: Government Medicine on Beale Street
- 7 Pain and Policy at the Crossroads of Managed Care
- Conclusion. Race against Disease
- Notes
- Primary Sources
- Index
- A section of illustrations