Publications Surgery
The History of Surgery in the United States 1775-1900 Ira M. Rutkow, M.D., Dr. P.H.
The first volume of this definitive two-volume set on the development of American surgery describes, analyzes and illustrates with 130 historic reproductions from the original texts the 552 original surgical treatises written by American surgeons before 1900. The second volume provides a survey of the periodical and pamphlet literature in which most early American surgical discoveries were first published. This book describes and analyzes the 1413 original journal articles and pamphlets written by American surgeons before 1900 deemed to have particular historical significance. Both volumes are arranged by surgical specialties so that each chapter represents a chronological history of the literature of anesthesia, colon and rectal surgery, general surgery, gynecology, neurological surgery, ophthalmology, orthopedic surgery, otorhinolaryngology, plastic surgery, thoracic surgery, and urology.
Volume I: Textbooks, Monographs & Treatises Out of Print
514pp. 130 illus. Cloth, dust jacket, acid-free paper. ISBN 0–930405–02–1. Norman Surgery Series No. 2. NP12372.
Volume II: Periodicals and Pamphlets. Out of Print
434pp. 116 illus. Cloth, dust jacket, acid-free paper. ISBN 0–930405–48–X. Norman Surgery Series No. 4.
About the Author
Ira M. Rutkow, MD, MPH, DrPH, received his undergraduate degree from Union College (1970) and his medical education at the St. Louis University School of Medicine (1975). In addition, he obtained the degrees of Master of Public Health (1978) and Doctor of Public Health (1981) from The Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. At Hopkins he was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar (1977–1978) and an Edwin L. Crosby Memorial Fellow of the American Hospital Association (1979–1980). He became a Diplomate of the American Board of Surgery in 1983 and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1986. He is the author of over seventy-five scientific papers and several books, including The History of Surgery in The United States 1775–1900, Volume One: Textbooks, Monographs and Treatises (1988); Socioeconomics of Surgery (1989); The History of Surgery in the United States 1775–1900, Volume II: Periodicals and Pamphlets (1992); Surgery: An Illustrated History (1993); and American Surgery: An Illustrated History (1998). He is Consulting Editor for Surgical History for the Archives of Surgery, founder and surgical director of The Hernia Center in Freehold, New Jersey, and serves as Clinical Professor of Surgery at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (Newark).
Reviews of The History of Surgery in the United States. Volume I: Textbooks, Monographs and Treatises
“Rutkow’s compilation is impressive…Anyone remotely interested in recovering, recording, or making a past for surgery will find this an invaluable source.”
—From Bulletin of the History of Medicine 64(1990): 111–112.
“…a truly superb tome…This unique, one-of-a-kind production should be in every surgical library and read not only by the academicians, but by all surgeons interested in the development of American surgery.”
—From The Journal of the American Medical Association, July 21, 1989, vol. 262, no. 3, p. 414
“…a work that will be of essential importance to historians of the field, and will serve as a fascinating archive for those with less specialized interests…it will be unlikely that any but the most experienced historians will carry out serious studies of American surgical history without making reference to this book.”
—From The Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, vol. 45, April 1990
Reviews of The History of Surgery in the United States, 1775-1900. Volume II: Periodicals and Pamphlets
“This fascinating glimpse into our surgical past has so much to interest the reader.…”
—From The Journal of the American Medical Association, July 7, 1993, vol. 270, no. 1, p.98.
“[Dr. Rutkow’s] contribution to the history of the development of surgery in America and the development of medicine as a whole is invaluable…an immense amount of scholarly research…an invaluable contribution to the history of American surgery.”
—From Surgical Neurology 39(1993): 334–335
« back to all Surgery Publications
back to top