“An excellent overview of the field of medical sociology. It is thorough, well-written, and provocative. Complex subjects are presented clearly and in a straightforward, readable fashion.” — Carol V. Apt, South Carolina State University

“Changing administrative practices as well as new technologies, patient demands, and social needs have brought growing pressures on medical professionals. The health care system is undergoing rapid and disruptive change. Brown’s collection provides very diverse views from a range of disciplines. — Dorothy Nelkin, New York University

“The selection of readings looks excellent. Early comments from the students have been very positive.” — Gerald Goodman, Texas Woman’s University

“This is a great book at an affordable price. Classic articles are presented in a friendly and well-organized format.” — Melanie Egorin, San Francisco State University

“This reader is exceptionally well-balanced, combining classic articles with cutting-edge readings.” — Bill Gronfein, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis

“Very readable; excellent coverage of a variety of topics; up to date, including articles on race, health and illness, and environmental racism.” — Finnegan Alford-Cooper, Stetson University

Part I. THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS

Section I. SOCIAL INEQUALITY, HEALTH, AND ILLNESS

1. Poverty and Ill Health: Physicians Can, and Should, Make a Difference (Michael McCally, Andrew Haines, Oliver Fein, Whitney Addington, Robert S. Lawrence, Christine K. Cassel, and Erin E. Blankenship)

2. Race, SES, and Health: The Added Effects of Racism and Discrimination (David R. Williams)

3. Women Get Sicker but Men Die Quicker: Social Epidemiology (Judith Lorber and Lisa Jean Moore)

4. Limits of Epidemiology (Steve Wing)

Section II. THEORIES AND PERSPECTIVES ON HEALTH AND ILLNESS

5. Naming and Framing: The Social Construction of Diagnosis and Illness (Phil Brown)

6. The Shifting Engines of Medicalization (Peter Conrad)

7. Stress, Coping, and Social Supports (Leonard I. Pearlin and Carol S. Aneshensel)

8. Place Effects on Health (Sally Macintyre, Anne Ellaway, and Steven Cummins)

Section III. ENVIRONMENTAL AND OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

9. Popular Epidemiology and Toxic Waste Contamination: Lay and Professional Ways of Knowing (Phil Brown)

10. Worker Health and Safety at the Beginning of a New Century (David Kotelchuck)

Part II. BEING ILL AND GETTING CARE

Section IV. EXPERIENCING ILLNESS AND SEEKING CARE
11. Pathways to the Doctor—From Person to Patient (Irving Kenneth Zola)
12. The Genesis of Chronic Illness: Narrative Reconstruction (Gareth Williams)
13. Experiences of Illness and Narrative Understandings (Susan E. Bell)
14. The Medical Management of Femininity: Women’s Experiences with Silicone Breast Implants (Susan Zimmerman)
15. Illness and Other Assaults on Self: The Relative Impact of HIV/AIDS on Women's Lives (Desireé Ciambrone)
16. The Emergence of Alternative Medicine (Michael Goldstein)

Section V. INTERACTION, NEGOTIATION, AND TRUST BETWEEN PATIENTS AND PROVIDERS
17. The Social Organization of Illness (Eliot Freidson)
18. Infantilization: The Medical Model of Care (Karen A. Lyman)
19. Concepts of Trust among Patients with Serious Illness (David Mechanic and Sharon Meyer)

Section VI. BIOETHICS, EXPERIMENTATION, AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES
20. The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (James Jones)
21. Transplantation and the Medical Commons (Renée C. Fox and Judith P. Swazey)
22. The DNA Mystique: The Gene as a Cultural Icon (Dorothy Nelkin and Susan Lindee)
23. Prenatal Diagnosis in Context (Barbara Katz Rothman)
24. Is It Safe?—New Ethics for Reporting Personal Exposures to Environmental Chemicals (Julia Green Brody, Rachel Morello-Frosch, Phil Brown, Ruthann A. Rudel, Rebecca Gasior Altman, Margaret Frye, Cheryl A. Osimo, Carla Pérez, and Liesel M. Seryak)

Part III. THE HEALTH-CARE SYSTEM

Section VII. THE HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY
25. Managed Care: Its Origins and Prospects (Donald W. Light)
26. Why the United States Has No National Health Insurance (Jill Quadagno)
27. Pills, Power, People: Sociological Understandings of the Pharmaceutical Industry (Joan Busfield)

Section VIII. INSTITUTIONAL SETTINGS
28. The Rise of the Modern Hospital (Charles Rosenberg)
29. Antagonism and Accommodation: Interpreting the Relationship between Public Health and Medicine in the United State during the 20th Century (Allan M. Brandt and Martha Gardner)
30. The Patient in the Intensive Care Unit (Robert Zussman)

Section IX. HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS
31. The Growth of Medical Authority (Paul Starr)
32. To Listen, To Recognize (Rita Charon)
33. The Gender of Care (Joan Cassell)
34. Nurses’ Role: Caring, Professionalism, and Subordination (Daniel Chambliss)

Part IV. HEALTH SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
35. Embodied Health Movements: New Approaches to Social Movements in Health (Phil Brown, Stephen Zavestoski, Sabrina McCormick, Brian Mayer, Rachel Morello-Frosch, and Rebecca Altman)
36. Democracy, Expertise, and AIDS Treatment Activism (Steven Epstein)
37. Breast Cancer in Two Regimes: The Impact of Social Movements on Illness Experience (Maren Klawiter)
38. Environmental Justice Organizing for Environmental Health: Case Study on Asthma and Diesel Exhaust in Roxbury, Massachusetts (Penn Loh and Jodi Sugerman-Brozan)

Appendix: Annotated Bibliography of Journals in Medical Sociology and Related Areas