Repetitive, somewhat circular pleading weakens the case, but Singh’s thesis merits discussion for anyone interested in...
A well-intended but imperfectly constructed argument for community-based health care by a physician-turned–medical activist.
The Affordable Care Act of 2010, or Obamacare in shorthand, is a frequent target for the corporate right, offended at the thought that medicine should not be the profit center that, say, oil and copper afford. It is less often criticized by the left, which lends Singh’s (Arnhold Global Health Center, Mount Sinai) critique an interesting cry-in-the-wilderness quality. The author works from a by-now-quaint notion that the physician is the advocate for the patient and, more, that a doctor is a kind of “natural attorney for the poor.” In this advocacy, the physician must leverage existing networks not of insurers but of friends, neighbors, and family. Obesity, for instance, is a widespread problem everywhere in the United States but especially in poor neighborhoods, where nutrition is indifferent and healthy food not easily accessible. In such an instance, promoting good health practices to any effective measure involves remaking the community as much as the individual. Singh’s arguments against a health care regime “imbalanced in favor of technocrats and captains of industry” are very well-placed, as is his critique of ACA for, among other things, not including communities in health care planning or considering the neighborhood as a natural political unit; no one is better positioned to advance these arguments. Yet he is long in the diagnosis and short in the healing. While he states in many ways the basic notion that neighborhoods need to be engaged in health care, that community-based medicine needs to be made a priority, he is less cogent in advancing specific ways in which we can move toward “total population health,” as one of his chapter titles puts it, and shift medicine away from its current corporatized model.
Repetitive, somewhat circular pleading weakens the case, but Singh’s thesis merits discussion for anyone interested in curing a sick health care system.Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4214-2044-8
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ.
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
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BOOK TO SCREEN
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Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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