Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Renaissance Men: Agents of Medical and Cultural Modernity

Renaissance Men: Agents of Medical and Cultural Modernity

Washington, Harriet A.

Hardcover

Biographies GeneralMedical ReferenceBlack American History

Publisher Price: $32.00

PREORDER - Expected ship date November 10, 2026

ISBN10: 031658360X
ISBN13: 9780316583602
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Published: Nov 10 2026
Pages: 256
Language: English
The gripping, untold stories of three unsung Black physicians and their critical contributions to the field of medicine and American culture, from the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Medical Apartheid.

Between 1847 and 1952, three New York City doctors transformed medicine, catalyzed racial equity, elevated American culture, then were all but lost to history--until now.

James McCune Smith, MD., Rudolph Fisher, MD., and Louis T. Wright, MD each helped shape our nation and advance medicine while sharing overlapping passions--an uncompromising, even militant opposition to racial fetters; medical research that refused racial denigration; and literary acumen. While not strictly contemporaries, they were bound across time through obstacles that parallel those we confront today. Medical exclusion and disparagement, rampant healthcare inequities paired with housing segregation, racial abuse and police violence, lynching, the suppression of Black history--and even racial bars to higher medical education--that mirrored today's challenges to affirmative action.

In this comprehensive slice of previously unrevealed history, renowned writer and scholar Harriet Washington sheds light on Black physicians who pioneered important medical achievements that benefit the health of all Americans. Renaissance Men draws parallels between contemporary and historical medical exclusion and healthcare inequities and reveals a powerful argument for supporting current medical aspirants of color. Surfacing this long-buried history shows us what genius we stand to lose if medicine doesn't rectify its current course of racial exclusion.

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