Advance Praise for "Years of Change and Suffering"!

Co-editor Guy Hasegawa and I are putting finishing touches on the manuscript for Years of Change and Suffering: Modern Perspectives on Civil War Medicine, our collection of invited expert essays. The book is due to be published in October 2009 by Edinborough Press. You can read more details about the various contributors and their chapters here and here.

A few people have had a chance to read the manuscript already and they have provided some very kind advance praise, which we are proud, happy - and humbled - to share:

"The new book Years of Change and Suffering:Modern Perspectives on Civil War Medicine is a must for all interested in the subject of Civil War medicine. Its authors are the elite of Civil War medical scholars of our time and they give a new, modern insight to the subject. Highly recommended." - Gordon Dammann, D.D.S.

Dr. "Gordy" Damman is the founder of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine and the author of several books, including three volumes of the Pictorial Encyclopedia of Civil War Medical Instruments and Equipment and - more recently - Images of Civil War Medicine: A Photographic History (Demos Medical Publishing, 2007) with Alfred Jay Bollet.

“Years of Change and Suffering is a collection of fresh and insightful essays on those essential, yet often overlooked, underpinnings of medical care in the American Civil War. With impeccable scholarship each essay enlivens seemingly mundane subject matter and illuminates its importance to the progress of medical science, both during the war years and beyond.” - Bill J. Gurley, Ph.D.

Bill is editor of the excellent book, I Acted From Principle: The Civil War Diary of a Confederate Surgeon in the Trans-Mississippi (University of Arkansas Press, 2005); he is also Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

"If hindsight is 20/20, then this collection of essays by eight renowned authors and scholars give us a 20/15 vision of Civil War medicine. A must volume for the library of any Civil War medical historian." - Peter J. D'Onofrio, Ph.D.

Pete is founder and President of the Society of Civil War Surgeons.

Finally, Dr. Thomas P. Lowry penned a wonderful Foreword to the book which includes the following kind endorsement:

"Years of Change and Suffering adds a whole new dimension to the literature on Civil War medicine: it does not duplicate earlier work, but gives us in-depth treatment of subjects explored only minimally in other works and illuminates the quantum leap in medical knowledge and organization spawned by the vast necessities and cataclysmic suffering of a continent at war...This is a remarkable book. The contributors are the top people in their respective fields. The narrative prose is lively and clear...I found it both informative and enjoyable."

Tom is the author of more than a dozen books on the Civil War - especially the medical aspects - including the landmark The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex and the Civil War (Stackpole Books, 1994) and - most recently - Confederate Death Sentences: A Reference Guide (BookSurge, 2009).

On behalf of Guy and the other contributors to the book, we want to thank Gordy, Bill, Pete and Tom for their wonderful endorsements.

Keep posted to theblog for more news on the book!