James E. Higgins

Just finished James E. Higgins book, The Health of the Commonwealth: A Brief History of Medicine, Public Health, and Disease in Pennsylvania (2020), published in partnership between Temple University Press and the Pennsylvania Historical Association. In just a little over 100 pages, Higgins brings a high-level overview of the development of health care institutions, medical education, and events of various communicable disease that have left their mark on the people of this state, all the while providing a global context to localized efforts. The book explores the variety of health care practices that predate the professionalization of physicians as we know them today and in the changing nature of hospital and institutional care that has also evolved to the mega economic systems we now encounter. Pennsylvania has suffered many epidemics and pandemics of the past that, so few know about today, which helps us understand the development of public health practices, standards, and laws that have evolved at both the local and state levels.

This publication is very accessible to a broad audience and is very much intended as a vehicle for undergraduate studies at college and universities. But would be a valuable tool for anyone interested in the wealth of healthcare innovations and failures that have occurred in this state. Well done Jim!… (más)