Seeking Home: Marginalization and Representation in Appalachian Literature and Song eds. by Leslie Harper Worthington and Jürgen E. Grandt (review)

Reid sets the historical context with his introduction. He describes Wilder’s sources. He reminds the reader, referring to recent works by Bollet (5), Humphreys (6), and Devine (7), that Union Army medicine during the Civil War had its problems, but also catalyzed subsequent improvements in medicine and public health. During his brief service as a medical cadet, Wilder was at the center of much of this. Reid adds value with his considerable digging into the people Wilder mentions. No name goes without annotation. Reid has surfaced an interesting fragment of Civil War history and the historiography is well done, but, for me, what is missing is the biographical and social context of Wilder’s story. Reading the book, I thought of Osler’s 1909 Alabama Student (8) and Nolen’s 1970 Making of a Surgeon (9), masterful reflections on life, society, and physician learning. Wilder tried to go there, but Reid does not help him make the journey. Reid fails to mention Wilder’s cadet experiences that were included in The Medical and Surgical History of the War (10, 11), which would have placed them and him in the broader medical environment. He only briefly presents his subject’s biographical trajectory and he does not explore how young Wilder, with his understanding of anatomy, conservative therapies, and sensitivity to human suffering, exemplified his own persona or the medical issues of the times. Reid has added another small asteroid to the vast universe of Civil War studies, but it will be up to the next writer to mine the rock’s hidden value. John M. Harris Jr., MD University of Arizona College of Medicine