Harriet A. Washington - Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present Books

Pros: Beautifully written and meticulously documented by a Harvard-trained scholar in medical ethics
Cons: She doesn't write much black medical researchers, Didn't they abuse patients?

Absolutely brilliant and riveting study of a field that has been neglected by other historians of medicine and medical ethicists. Impeccably documented and the writing is exciting, if disturbing in some points.

But this book is a very complex, subtle and nuanced treatment by someone who clearly is sophisticated about medicine and ethics and who also knows how to tell a good story: I've rarely seen these skills combined.

I don't want to seem racist--I'm not-- but I admit I was surprised to see she was black because the tone is so calm and measured, not at all angry or outraged. She is in favor of medical research but wants to see reforms and makes an airtight case for them. And the writing is very, very literate. I'm recommending this book to all my friends.