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Surgeon General's Warning

How Politics Crippled the Nation's Doctor
by Mike Stobbe (Author)
Hardcover eBook
Price: $34.95 / £30.00
Publication Date: Jun 2014
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 394
ISBN: 9780520272293
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 14 b/w illustrations
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About the Book

What does it mean to be the nation's doctor? In this engaging narrative, journalist Mike Stobbe examines the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General, emphasizing that it has always been unique within the federal government in its ability to influence public health. But now, in their efforts to provide leadership in public health policy, surgeons general compete with other high-profile figures such as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Furthermore, in an era of declining budgets, when public health departments have eliminated tens of thousands of jobs, some argue that a lower-profile and ineffective surgeon general is a waste of money. By tracing stories of how surgeons general like Luther Terry, C. Everett Koop, and Joycelyn Elders created policies and confronted controversy in response to issues like smoking, AIDS, and masturbation, Stobbe highlights how this office is key to shaping the nation’s health and explailns why its decline is harming our national well-being.

About the Author

Mike Stobbe is a national medical correspondent for The Associated Press and is based in New York City. He covers the CDC and writes on a range of health and medical topics. He has a doctorate in public health policy and administration from the University of North Carolina.

Table of Contents

Plates follow page

1. The Monarch of Public Health
Part One. Rise, 1871–1948
2. Coming to Power
3. War and Prominence
4. The Best Seller

Part Two. Decline, 1949–1980
5. The Quicksand Bureaucracy
6. “They Are Giving the Public Health Service Away!”
7. Bossed Around

Part Three. Struggle, 1981–2001
8. Resurrection
9. Drawn as Villains
10. “You’re on Your Own”

Part Four. Plummet, 2002–Present
11. MIA
12. “America’s Doctor”
13. The Surgeon General’s Demise

Notes
Index

Reviews

"A riveting history of the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General and the 18 doctors who held the post. . . . An outstanding resource on the history of U.S. public health." -STARRED REVIEW
— Booklist
"Remarkably enjoyable and fast-moving. . . . Eye-opening to anyone interested in American history and politics."
-STARRED REVIEW
— Library Journal
"A richly detailed account of the rise and fall of the United States surgeon general. . . . An important book for policymakers. Many readers will lament the declining state of a post that has contributed much to the country’s health."
— Kirkus
"Stobbe's skillful, engaging report is especially relevant today as the public's health continues to challenge the nation's leaders."
— Publishers Weekly
"With the rare blend of a reporter's nose for a story and a scholar's fastidiousness, Stobbe chronicles the past century and a half of Surgeons General. The result is a stimulating perspective on the history of American public health."
— The Lancet
"Invaluable to scholars and highly engaging for general audiences. . . . Stobbe’s research and portraits of the men and women who have held the post of Surgeon General are remarkable in their vividness and insights."
— PopMatters
"Stobbe has written an interesting and informative book useful to both scholars and general readers. He captures well the political challenges that those working at high levels on public health issues are likely to face."
— Health Affairs
"If the surgeon general is the trusted voice on health—'the nation's doctor'—how can he be unknown to a roomful of physicians and other medical professionals? Journalist Mike Stobbe provides the answer in Surgeon General's Warning."
— Science
"The Surgeon General’s Warning is an impressively detailed, eminently readable account of the creation, strengthening, and gradual decline of the office of surgeon general. . . . A journalist by trade, Stobbe’s narrative is not only based on impressive research but is also very entertaining to read. He effectively brings history to life by recounting the personalities and biographical details of past surgeons general and their contributions to public health in the US. . . . Stobbe can lay claim to having written perhaps the definitive history of the subject."
— Choice
"Mike Stobbe's history of the U.S. surgeon general is more than a grand tour of American medicine. It is a thoughtful and engaging analysis of what the surgeons general did and do while pursuing the not-always-so-straight line of advancing the public's health."—Howard Markel, M.D., Ph.D., George E. Wantz Distinguished Professor of the History of Medicine, Director at the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan, and Editor-in-Chief of The Milbank Quarterly

"Surgeon General's Warning is a fascinating, thoroughly researched historical tour of the political battlefields of U.S. public health. We watch successive surgeons general lead noble charges—or beat cowardly retreats—in struggles to marshal indifferent, embarrassed, or corrupt administrations against plagues ranging from venereal disease to tobacco and from AIDS to obesity."—Arthur Allen, author, Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver

"Well researched, engagingly written."—Jill Center, Senior Health Policy Analyst

Awards

  • 2015, Highly Commended Certificate in the Basis of Medicine, British Medical Association
  • SB&F's Best Books of 2014 in Medical Sciences and Psychiatry, Science Books and Films