Introduction Part One The Subjects, the Doctors, and the Experiments 1. “The Money Was Good and the Money Was Easy.” Inmates recall life and experiments at Holmesburg Prison 2. “It Was Like a Farmer Seeing a Fertile Field.” Dr. Albert M.Kligman enters Holmesburg Part Two Twentieth-Century American Penal Experimentation 3. “They’re Dropping Like Flies Out Here.” History of U.S. prisoner experimentation Part Three Cruel and Unusual Experiments 4.“The Walls Seemed To Be Breathing.” The Army tests chemical warfare agents 5.“I Am Not Part of the Program.” Radioactive isotopes are introduced 6.“Danger! This Material Is Extremely Toxic.” The dioxin experiments Part Four The End of Experimentation at Holmesburg 7.“Where Are We Going To Do These Things Now?” The slow demise of inmate experimentation 8.“Retin-A®’s Birthplace Was at Holmesburg Prison.” The discovery of Retin-A® 9.“A Conspiracy of Silence.” Conclusion
Allen M. Hornblum teaches Urban Studies at Temple University. He has served on the Board of Trustees of the Philadelphia Prison System and as the Chief of Staff of Philadelphia's Sheriff's Office.
"Hornblum delineates the contours of the injustice in fine detail.
. . In recent years historians of science and medicine have turned
their attention to the paradox of American research practices
involving human subjects in the wake of Nuremburg. This book is a
welcome empirical contribution to the ongoing scholarly discussion.
--M. Susan Lindee for Isis: Journal of the History of
ScienceSociety, Vol. 91, No, 2, June 2000."
"This admirably comprehensive story of the use of prisoners for
medical research is embarrassingly painful to read . . . This
encyclopedic, well-documented treatise . . . is a fascinating
story." -- Journal of the AmericanMedical Association
"Hornblum's book is awesome, revealing the sanctimonious venality
of American medicine . . . Excellent! Highly recommended." --
Choice
"A recently released expose has sparked new interest in this
controversial chapter of American medical history." -- Village
Voice
"A startling new book." -- Philadelphia Tribune
" Acres of Skin is a harrowing, searing journey into the ways in
which we prey upon the weak and defenseless in the supposed name of
medical advancement. The fact that these human experiments were
sanctioned and condoned by one of the most prestigious universities
in the world only makes this true story all the more remarkable and
disturbing." -- Buzz Bissinger, author of A Prayer forthe City and
Friday Night Lights
"Hornblum has written a highly effective expose." -- Publishers
Weekly
"Devastating picture of US medical experimentation and the men,
educational institutions, and drug companies that carried it out."
-- Booklist
"A thorough account of the questionable medical experimentation
carried out in Philadelphia's Holmesburg Prison from the mid-1940s
to 1974. . . . Essential for students of medical ethics." --
Library Journal
"Hornblum has masterfully retold this tale." -- The Philadelphia
Inquirer
"Allen Hornblum's Acres of Skin does for Holmesburg what David
Rothman's Willowbrook's Wars and James Jones' BadBlood did for
Tuskegee. Each shows how the authority of science has been used to
effect officially sanctioned exploitation of the vulnerable. Part
of the tragedy is that we must wait decades for its public
exposure." -- John Kleinig, Director of the Institute for Criminal
Justice Ethics, John Jay College for Criminal Justice
"Acres of Skin is painful to read, but it must be read--not only
for its historical significance but also for what it can still
teach us about the conduct of medical research in the contemporary
world. For Allen M. Hornblum's compelling account of what
transpired within Holmesburg prison is, sadly, only a chapter in an
ongoing story." -- Jay Katz, M.D., Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor
Emeritus of Law, Medicine, and Psychiatry, Yale Law School
"Acres of Skin is a powerful and impassioned expose of the dark
side of American medicine. Most damning is Hornblum's documentation
of the callous indifference of prison authorities, politicians, the
U.S. Military, and the so-called watchdogs of the medical
profession to the hideous and dangerous experiments performed by
physicians who violated their sacred oath to heal, not harm, their
patients. A most important book." -- Sheldon Harris, author of
Factories of Death
"The book really gives the reader an in-depth account of the
back-alley medical practices/experiments that were taking place at
the prison. It brings forth the truth." -- Leodus Jones, former
Holmesburg Prison inmate
"A compelling account of how in the 1960s and early 1970s
government and privately funded researchers took advantage of
prisoners' susceptibility to promises of easy money or early
release in exchange for the prisoners' willingness to serve as
human subjects in research." -- T. Howard Stone, Medical Humanities
Review
"This work is written with compassion and makes a significant
contribution to social medical history and the history of science
through its scholarship as well a through its call for social
justice." -- Theresa Richardson, Canadian Journal of History, April
2001
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