The health left in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.

Abstract

To go back to a period more than five decades ago to talk about the health left is to enter not just another time, but another world. Between the Great Depression and the postwar period, challenging and contradictory social, political, and professional developments were brought to the surface in U.S. life. The health left shared in the opportunities and confusion, enriching the American spirit and participating in both the pleasures and the pain. The 1930s saw economic depression, wars, the birth of fascism, and fears of social collapse. In medicine, despite sporadic scientific advances, the social response was remote and narrow. But social activism motivated medical students and medical practitioners. The 1940s marked a change in both attitudes and values. The left was divided, and bitter factionalism stymied cooperative action. Participation in the war against fascism promoted solidarity, despite the sadness of the evidence of brutality and lack of humanity. The 1950s are sometimes considered regressive, but seeds germinated as the complexity of medical life engendered new approaches to meeting sociomedical needs. As we entered the 1960s a different and more hopeful story unfolded as the rebellions of the poor, blacks, and women brought about a new era of social action.