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By Cynthia A. Connolly
182 pp, $39.95
New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press, 2008
ISBN-13: 978-0-8135-4267-6

JAMA. 2009;301(12):1292-1293.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Saving Sickly Children: The Tuberculosis Preventorium in America, 1909-1970 is the fascinating story of a long-forgotten idea for preventing tuberculosis epidemics among the urban poor at the beginning of the 20th century. The author, trained as a nurse before becoming a historian, uncovers how well-meaning Progressive Era reformers took "pretubercular" children out of their family homes and placed them in residential institutions to prevent them from developing the disease.

The story is set within the historical context of the time. The basic tenet of Progressive Era reforms that fueled the preventorium concept was that children could be used as a canvas for improving society. At the turn of the century, approximately 15% of all deaths in urban areas were caused by tuberculosis, and little progress had been made in treating the disease. Accordingly, "Addressing the broad societal problems related to the epidemic became a chief priority of those reform-minded individuals . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Barbara Floyd, MA, MPA, Reviewer
Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections
University of Toledo
Toledo, Ohio
barbara.floyd@utoledo.edu

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