...brilliant and deliciously readable new book ... Oshinsky’s admiration and affection for Bellevue is clear...But warm feelings don’t keep Oshinsky from offering the darker side of such heroic episodes ... In this masterful history, Oshinsky reminds us that, like the city it serves, Bellevue always bounces back.
Any exciting book about the history of Bellevue — which this one surely is — is destined to be as much about the history of disease, medicine and New York City as about the hospital itself. Mr. Oshinsky’s chapters about the early days of medicine are especially, distractingly interesting — so much so that they’ll inspire you to read them aloud to anyone who’ll listen ... The book offers an eye-opening lesson on how the two-tiered system of health care started in this country ... [Oshinsky] has a lovely flair for detail. His chapter about the AIDS crisis, which tested the mettle of many physicians — they were at once afraid for their health and demoralized by their powerlessness — is moving and humane ... At times, however, Mr. Oshinsky’s sourcing is inexplicably sloppy ... Most baffling of all, there’s no discussion of Bellevue’s famous services for survivors of torture.
...a meticulous, if somewhat too narrowly focused, history ... Oshinsky writes with particular vigor of Bellevue’s refusal to subscribe to popular prejudices, noting that the hospital welcomed Jewish doctors as well as Christian ones, female doctors as well as male ones, and African American staff ... Oshinsky’s greatest strength may be his capacity for admiration. But seldom do we really get to know these people; they appear in vignettes ... Bellevue is curiously lacking in emotional punch, expressing an almost hagiographic veneration for the very real accomplishments of the hospital, its doctors and its programs, but without deeply moving the reader ... his narrative of Bellevue feels admirable but limited.
[Oshinsky] skillfully guides us through the years from its 1736 founding as an almshouse to the present, delving into the myriad ways the publicly funded hospital dealt with medical issues of yore like tuberculosis and pre-anesthesic, pre-antiseptic surgery, before graduating to unprecedented terrors like the AIDS epidemic and Hurricane Sandy. You’ll walk away in awe of this tenacious institution—and marvel at the way Oshinsky also fits a comprehensive but succinct history of modern medicine itself into the same book.
...[a] comprehensive, fascinating and informative book ... Oshinsky won a Pulitzer Prize for Polio: An American Story, and this book is in that excellent tradition: a grand, potentially complicated subject, extensively researched, presented in an anecdote-filled, readable manner.
Oshinsky moves ahead with his history of Bellevue in short, crisp chapters, exploring its role in the Civil War before arriving at the Bellevue Psychiatric Building ... Bellevue seeks to present an alternative narrative, one that emphasizes the important role the hospital has played in New York’s public-health history. But avoiding any direct discussion of the popular representations of Bellevue—or, indeed, of the luminaries who stayed there—only serves to remind readers of these grand cultural myths. And it doesn’t do enough to redirect or contextualize what everyone already knows about the hospital ... Oshinsky’s book goes a long way toward correcting that record, but his refusal to address Bellevue’s cultural history is an important opportunity missed.
Bellevue is bursting with story lines, so many, in fact, that it can make the narrative feel disjointed. But this is a minor quibble; Oshinsky simply has a wealth of great material, and it’s a joy to traverse it with him.
...[an] admirable portrait of the hospital’s long and complex history ... Mr. Oshinsky is excellent in describing the subsequent transformation of Bellevue and the difficulties it faced in the 20th century in competing with fancier private hospitals ... The hospital has been fortunate in its historian.
...[a] deeply engrossing history ... There is no easy narrative path through this material, yet Oshinsky has wrestled an institutional history of significant complexity into a compelling tale. Winner of the 2006 Pulitzer for Polio: An American Story, Oshinsky is a master of finding and relating memorable anecdotes to embody the history. The result is a serious story studded with juicy and occasionally blood-curdling bits from the past.
