Bettering the Health of the People - by William W McLendon & Floyd W Denny & William B Blythe (Hardcover)

About the Book

Bettering the Health of the People: W. Reece Berryhill, the UNC School of Medicine, and the North Carolina Good Health Movement

Book Synopsis

W. Reece Berryhill, M.D., (1900-1979) was the founding dean from 1941 to 1964 of the M.D.-granting medical school and today's medical school-hospitals complex at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This biography documents and personalizes the remarkable transformation in daily life, medical education, and health care in North Carolina during the twentieth century. Berryhill's life story is inseparable from the story of how the state mobilized its citizens and resources in the Good Health Movement of the 1940s and 1950s to address the deplorable health status of its citizens (its young men had the worst rejection rate for military service in World War II of any state).

While celebrating the contributions of Berryhill and many other public-spirited individuals dedicated to addressing North Carolinians' need for more doctors and more hospitals, this work is also an urgent challenge to address the still unmet need for more insurance -- that is, universal access to needed health care for all citizens, regardless of ability to pay.

Review Quotes

"Examines the transformation of health care in North Carolina during the 20th century with a focus on medical education at UNC and its founding father, W. Reece Berryhill, MD." -- UNC Health Talk

"Makes an interesting contribution to the growing scholarship on southern medical history." -- The Journal of Southern History

"Provides a history of past successes and a call for continuing efforts to improve the availability and quality of health care in North Carolina." -- Metro Magazine

About the Author

William W. McLendon is professor emeritus of pathology and laboratory medicine; the late Floyd W. Denny Jr. was professor and chair emeritus of pediatrics; and the late William B. Blythe was professor emeritus of medicine, all at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.