- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (14 May 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0415919908
- ISBN-13: 978-0415919906
- Product Dimensions: 23.5 x 16 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
1,285,846 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #79 in Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Law & Disorder > Punishment > Prisons
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Product Description
Review
"Hornblum delineates the contours of the injustice in fine detail. . . In recent years historians of science and medicine have turned their attention to the paradox of American research practices involving human subjects in the wake of Nuremburg. This book is a welcome empirical contribution to the ongoing scholarly discussion. --M. Susan Lindee for "Isis: Journal of the History of Science Society, Vol. 91, No, 2, June 2000."
"This admirably comprehensive story of the use of prisoners for medical research is embarrassingly painful to read . . . This encyclopedic, well-documented treatise . . . is a fascinating story."
-"Journal of the American Medical Association
"Hornblum's book is awesome, revealing the sanctimonious venality of American medicine . . . Excellent! Highly recommended."
-"Choice
"A recently released expose has sparked new interest in this controversial chapter of American medical history."
-"Village Voice
"A startling new book."
-"Philadelphia Tribune
"This admirably comprehensive story of the use of prisoners for medical research is embarrassingly painful to read . . . This encyclopedic, well-documented treatise . . . is a fascinating story."
-"Journal of the American Medical Association
"Hornblum's book is awesome, revealing the sanctimonious venality of American medicine . . . Excellent! Highly recommended."
-"Choice
"A recently released expose has sparked new interest in this controversial chapter of American medical history."
-"Village Voice
"A startling new book."
-"Philadelphia Tribune
Product Description
At a time of increased interest and renewed shock over the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, Acres of Skin sheds light on yet another dark episode of American medical history. In this disturbing expose, Allen M. Hornblum tells the story of Philadelphia's Holmesburg Prison.
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First Sentence
They marched six of us, three blacks and three whites, all the same age, late twenties-early thirties, into this one room of the trailer. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
They marched six of us, three blacks and three whites, all the same age, late twenties-early thirties, into this one room of the trailer. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As a former UPenn student, I found this book to be especially horrifying. The U.S. tried the Nazi doctors for their crimes against humanity, but then we decided that the Nurembug Code didn't apply to us. Instead, the human medical experiments that went on at Holmesburg prison, which are described in disturbing detail in Hornblum's excellent book, were not unusual in this country. I liked this book because it exposes the hypocrisy beneath much of American morality. Out of one side of our mouth we quite rightly condemn the Nazis for their grotesque acts, but then we turn around & sanction similar experiments on disadvantaged members of our own population. Perhaps the most interesting section of the book is its history of medical experimentation in our country, which began well before the second World War & continued until the mid 1970's. A must-read.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
34 of 38 people found the following review helpful
New York Times is wrong: very solid book.
14 Aug 2001
Format:Paperback
I looked up the negative New York Times book review to see what Higbie's problem was. She thinks Hornblum is biased because he supports "prison reform." The book sticks quite close to the issue of medical experiments in prison, which must be at the very least something in prison in need of "reform". Higbie is also offended by the comparison to Nazi medical practices. But that's not exaggeration by Hornblum. As the book relates, the Nazi doctors at Nuremberg successfully avoided the death penalty by arguing that their own pointless torture experiments were similar to that conducted by U.S. doctors in U.S. prisons.
It's an excellent book. The book focuses on the specific prison, but has a lengthy chapter on experiments on prisoners throughout the U.S.
My only real criticism is the optimistic ending of chapter 3 that the FDA banned prisoner experimentation in the 1980s. As far as I can tell, the regulation was suspended at passage and then repealed in 1997. Fifty years after Nuremberg, experiments on prisoners unable to give informed consent continues.
30 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Yet another national disgrace.
20 Jun 1999
Format:Paperback
Perpetrator of these atrocities, University of Pennsylvania's "Dr." Albert Kligman, is the second physician in FDA history to be barred from experimenting on human subjects. Both Retin-A and Renova are derivatives of skin hardening chemicals he concocted at Holmesburg Prison. This merciless freak experimented on hospitalized retarded children and helpless elderly patients as well. Never apologized to his tortured victims or their families.
I am permanently boycotting Retin-A, Renova, Johnson & Johnson and Dow Chemical. U. Penn will never get a dime from me either. All of them continue to profit greatly from wanton destruction of human lives.
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful
An Eye Opener
7 Sep 1999
Format:Hardcover
This book is great because it shows you the depths of exploitation that some people are willing to descend to in the name of science and the almighty buck. America is always so ready and willing to condemn Germany for Nazism, which we should, but we'd better examine our own diabolical potential as well.
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