Grady Memorial Hospital was named for Henry Woodfin Grady, an influential Atlanta journalist, lecturer, and advocate for the “New South.” The “New South” was the dream of many southern businessmen and civic leaders: a revitalized region of the United States, arisen from the ashes of the Civil War with the help of northern capital and enterprise, a land of prosperity and influence in the reunited nation. When Henry Grady died of pneumonia in 1889 at the age thirty-nine, a statue was almost immediately erected in his honor. More significantly, and more appropriately in the eyes of many Atlanta citizens and businessmen, the long-debated public hospital that opened in 1892 was named for him. Martin Moran begins his history of Grady Memorial in a chapter aptly titled, “The Setting,” in which he sketches the early history of Atlanta from the 1830s through its birth as the railroad junction of Marthasville to its being renamed “Atlanta” in 1845 and its growth during the mid-nineteenth century. Here, as throughout the book, Moran deftly interweaves the history of medicine and health care with the social, economic, and political threads of Atlanta, the state of Georgia, and the nation. The history of Grady Memorial Hospital is inextricably the history of Atlanta, a southern city, and of Georgia, a southern state. It is also the history of hospitals throughout the United States. The economic pressures that have affected hospitals throughout the country are the same pressures that affected Grady throughout its history. Moran has written a detailed, thoroughly researched history of one hospital that exemplifies the history of American hospitals. Moreover, the history of Grady Memorial is a history of race relations. As recently as 1958, a new hospital building at Grady was architecturally divided: white on one side, black on the other. There are no color photographs among the illustrations in this book. Perhaps a cost-based strategy, it nevertheless quite appropriately reflects the black and white history of Grady Memorial that was once institutionalized in the very structure of the hospital and persisted demographically, and perhaps politically, well into the twentieth century and, one suspects, beyond. Institutional histories can be deadly dull. Such is not the case with Atlanta's Living Legacy. Moran shares anecdotes from Grady's history—such as the “Embroidered Towels Mystery,” the “Great ‘Fats’ Hardy Bootleg Disaster,” and the 1958 internal memo on “How to Use an Elevator”—that are enlightening and sometimes amusing. The long journey of Grady Memorial from public hospital for the indigent to world-renowned medical center is a fascinating story. At times, especially in the latter half of the book, the author resorts to the biographical sketches of administrators, politicians, and other key figures that fill so much of organizational biographies. Still, most of the narrative is devoted to historical events, political maneuvering, social trends, and developments in health care delivery and medical innovations that are both intriguing and noteworthy. The writing style is engaging, if occasionally disconcerting. The author's propensity for starting sentences with participial phrases leads to several misplaced modifiers, including the remarkable claim that “Dr. Warren's passion,” rather than Warren himself, was “widely respected as a surgeon.” A more irritating distraction is the numerous inserts and sidebars that add so much interest to the narrative. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, they are printed on gray backgrounds, and the lack of contrast with the black print makes them hard to read. More than twenty pages of notes at the end of the book attest to the depth of the research on which this book is based. A few of them include annotations that should have been placed in footnotes in the text to prevent their being overlooked. More problematic is the fact that the chapters are unnumbered in the table of contents but listed by number only in the notes section, making it hard to connect the notes with the narrative, if the reader does not refer to them along the way. The author also includes a list of “Selected Sources and Suggested Readings” for those who want to dig more deeply into the history and issues covered in the book. Atlanta's Living Legacy is a surprisingly enjoyable book. It is as much about the people and their times as the institution itself. Students of medical history, political dynamics, and health care administration will find it informative and instructive.
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Sep 1, 2016
Samantha J Kleindienst + 9
Open Access
