Review of Christopher J. Rutty, A Circle of Care

Times are tough for many young scholars in these the 1990s. Universities are competing for graduate students and admitting them in unprecedentedly high numbers, but few jobs await these students when they walk out, five or six or seven years later, PhD in hand. Some do find academic posts, some find postdoctoral fellowships, and many take up jobs in publishing or computer industries. And some do contract work. For history graduates in particular, commissioned histories have been an important source of income in recent years, while for medical historians, hospitals and medical schools interested in their own institutional histories have put bread on the table for a number of us. Christopher J. Rutty, a recent PhD graduate of the University of Toronto was commissioned by St. Mary’s General Hospital (in Kitchener), to write a 75-year history of the hospital. I myself, also a recent graduate of the University of Toronto, am currently writing a commissioned history of St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School (in Paddington). What book review editor could resist? I have, thus, been invited to reflect on Dr. Rutty’s book and on the genre more generally; presumably Chris will have his turn if and when my own monograph is published.