Our Present Complaint

The renowned medical historian examines the current tensions in American healthcare in this "cogently written and well documented" book (Choice).

In Our Present Complaint, Charles E. Rosenberg examines today's dilemmas in American medicine within their historical and social contexts. He begins with an insightful look at the fundamental characteristics of medicine: how we think about disease, how the medical profession thinks about itself and its moral and intellectual responsibilities, and what prospective patients—all of us—expect from the medical profession.


Rosenberg also considers how ideas of disease causation reflect social values and cultural negotiations. His analyses of alternative medicine and bioethics consider the historically specific ways in which we define and seek to control what is appropriately medical.


At a time when clinical care and biomedical research generate as much angst as they offer cures, this volume provides valuable insight into how the practice of medicine has evolved, where it is going, and how lessons from history can improve its prognosis.