Product Description
Dorothy Levenson's Montefiore: The Hospital as Social Instrument, 1884-1984 chronicles the first century of Montefiore Medical Center in New York and examines the institution as a model of socially engaged medicine.
Founded in 1884 as the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids, the hospital was created by philanthropists to care for patients suffering from long-term illnesses such as tuberculosis, cancer, arthritis, and other chronic diseases that traditional hospitals of the era often refused to treat.
Over the next hundred years Montefiore evolved into a major teaching and research institution in the Bronx, closely associated with Albert Einstein College of Medicine and widely recognized for innovations in social medicine and community-based healthcare.
The work explores the intersection of philanthropy, immigration, public health, and medical innovation in New York City, highlighting how Montefiore addressed the needs of immigrant and working-class communities while pioneering new approaches to long-term care, occupational therapy, and social services in medicine.
Period photographs throughout illustrate early patient care, hospital wards, and rehabilitation programs.
Published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 1984 to mark the hospital's centennial, this is the first printing, as stated on the copyright page.
The dust jacket retains the original publisher's price and features historical imagery including children undergoing treatment at the Montefiore Country Sanitarium in 1902.
The volume includes notes, index, and numerous archival photographs documenting the development of one of the most influential medical institutions in New York City.
Dorothy Levenson served as historian for Montefiore Medical Center and specialized in the institutional history of hospitals and public health systems.
Her work reflects a broader late-20th-century movement toward examining healthcare institutions not only as medical facilities but as social organizations shaped by immigration, philanthropy, politics, and urban development.
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