What If Medicine Disappeared?

by Gerald E. Markle, Frances B. McCrea

2014 · State University of New York Press

In this thought-provoking book, sociologists Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea ask what would happen if Western medicine were to disappear. Using a rigorous and imaginative method—a thought experiment—Markle and McCrea evaluate medicine's impact on mortality and our national health. They examine various aspects of medicine, such as primary care, surgery, emergency medicine, pharmaceuticals, and mental illness treatment, and convincingly point out the problems that health care actually causes. Supporting their ideas with statistics and studies from medical and social science literature, Markle and McCrea argue that the medical model, despite its tremendous budget and hype, accomplishes far less than most would think. Their conclusions should promote critical review and lively discussion among medical consumers as well as among health care professionals and policy makers.

Meditations of a Holocaust Traveler

by Gerald E. Markle

2012 · State University of New York Press

Markle grasps at the Holocaust, not only from the writings of survivors and academic specialists, but also from his experience as a "tourist" of the Holocaust. He challenges the way we typically think about the Holocaust: them versus us; then versus now; there versus here. He travels across time, place, and subject to ponder the meaning of the Holocaust for contemporary cultures.