Bibliography
This is Third Root’s incomplete, yet inspiring Bibliography of Social Medicine! It includes books on Social Justice, Health Justice, and Herbal Medicine, among others. We will keep adding to this list periodically and strive to make these books accessible to our community in our Resource Library.
Social Justice
The Revolution Will Not Be Funded
by INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence
This is a book about the history of foundation funding of social justice organizations and the way that has stagnated or redirected different powerful social justice movements. JB
Health Justice
Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing
by Caroline Myss, PH.D.
In this book Dr. Myss presents her sought-after program for promoting spontaneous physical, emotional, and spiritual healing. Dr. Myss describes the seven centers of spiritual and physical power; how specific fears and stresses affect different parts of your anatomy; how to sense an energy imbalance before it becomes a physical symptom; and how to develop the spiritual maturity that will change your life. AU
Fourth Uncle in the Mountain: The Remarkable Legacy of a Buddhist Itinerant Doctor in Vietnam
by Quang Van Nguyen and Marjorie Pivar
Set during the French and American wars in South Vietnam, Fourth Uncle in the Mountain is the true story of an orphan, Quang Van Nguyen, adopted by a sixty-four-year-old monk, Thau, who carries great responsibility for his people as a barefoot doctor. Thau manages against all odds to raise his son to follow in his footsteps and in doing so saves him, as well as a part of Vietnam’s esoteric knowledge from the Vietnam holocaust. Thau is wanted by the French regime and occasionally must flee in to the jungle, where he is perfectly at home living among the animals. As wise and resourceful as Thau is, he meets his match in his mischievous son. Quang is more interested in learning Cambodian sorcery and martial arts than in developing his skills and wisdom according to his father’s plan. Fourth Uncle in the Mountain is an odyssey of a single-father folk hero and his foundling son in a land ravaged by the atrocities of war. It is a classic story complete with humor, tragedy, and insight, from a country where ghosts and magic are real. GWL
Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present
by Harriet Washington
This is a powerful book about the history of medical testing on African American people in the United States. This is an essential book for anyone providing care to this population in the United States and elsewhere, providing a context for attitudes toward medicine and healthcare. From grave digging for cadavers to use at medical schools to the forced sterilization of black women, this book is informative and tragic. JB
Mountains Beyond Mountains
by Tracy Kidder
At the center of Mountains Beyond Mountains stands Paul Farmer. Doctor, Harvard professor, renowned infectious-disease specialist, anthropologist, the recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant, world-class Robin Hood, Farmer was brought up in a bus and on a boat, and in medical school found his life’s calling: to diagnose and cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. This magnificent book shows how radical change can be fostered in situations that seem insurmountable, and it also shows how a meaningful life can be created, as Farmer — brilliant, charismatic, charming, both a leader in international health and a doctor who finds time to make house calls in Boston and the mountains of Haiti — blasts through convention to get results. GWL
“Privileged with Cancer”
by Libbey Goldberg
This is an essay about Libbey’s travel through cancer and treatment from the perspective of a socially conscious young person with financial wealth. www.resourcegeneration.org/Resources/archive.html. GWL
Herbal Medicine
Herbal Emissaries by Steven Foster and Yue Chongxi
Since 1949, China has worked to integrate traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and modern Western medicine, so that today both systems are used, along with a blend of the two. TCM is now researched using scientific methods at institutions such as the Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Beijing, where Chongxi is a pharmacognosist. He has also authored numerous works on herbal medicine. Foster has authored several herb books (and coauthored the Peterson Field Guide to Medicinal Plants , Houghton, 1990). The authors introduce Western readers to a blend of the two systems by describing about 50 plants used in TCM that are also known to Westerners as ornamentals, weeds, or herbs (e.g., day lilies, gardenias, honeysuckle, privet, and forsythia). They cover in detail the uses, history, dosage, descriptions, cultivation, and processing of each plant. An excellent resource for alternative medicine collections.
— Katharine Galloway Garstka, Intergraph Corp., Huntsville, Ala., Library Journal GWL
Mending the Web of Life: Chinese Medicine & Species Conservation
by Elizabeth Call
Mending the Web of Life is a groundbreaking interdisciplinary work combining conservation and Chinese medicine. It demonstrates that it is possible to do well by doing good, and that practitioners of Chinese medicine can lead the way. GWL
Miscellaneous
After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path
by Jack Kornfield
This is a fabulous book about Westerners studying Eastern religions and the falls they make, the frustration, the misunderstanding, as well as how spiritual practice provides a context for our lives. JB
A Stranger in Tibet: The Adventures of a Wandering Zen Monk
by Scott Berry
In July 1900, Kawaguchi Ekai, a Japanese Zen monk of rather unorthodox stripe, crossed from Nepal into Tibet, becoming the first Japanese to enter either country. He was in search of original Mahayana Buddhist manuscripts, but because Tibet was actively attempting to exclude any foreigners, he became involved in far more. Kawaguchi subsequently wrote an account of his travels, Three Years in Tibet, on which Berry based this biography. Rather than simply recounting Kawaguchi’s travels, Berry discusses the geography, sociology, history, and especially topography of the area in a way that brings it alive. Since Kawaguchi lacked a sense of direction and was singularly accident-prone, there is no lack of excitement, but the book's strength is that it imparts a living character to Tibet, very important for contemporary readers today.
— Donald J. Pearce, Univ. of Minnesota Lib., Duluth, From Library Journal GWL
The Secret Treatise of the Spiritual Orchid
by Claude Larre and Elizabeth Rochat De La Vallee
This text contains proceedings transcripted from a London seminar covering Chapter 8 of the Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen, which describes the specific charges of the zang fu. It includes translation, analysis of ideograms, and commentary by ancient scholars. GWL
