Grover Cleveland or Health Care USA

Grover Cleveland: (The American Presidents Series)

Author: Henry F Graff

A fresh look at the only president to serve nonconsecutive terms.Though often overlooked, Grover Cleveland was a significant figure in American presidential history. Having run for President three times and gaining the popular vote majority each time -- despite losing the electoral college in 1892 -- Cleveland was unique in the line of nineteenth-century Chief Executives. In this book, presidential historian Henry F. Graff revives Cleveland's fame, explaining how he fought to restore stature to the office in the wake of several weak administrations. Within these pages are the elements of a rags-to-riches story as well as an account of the political world that created American leaders before the advent of modern media.

Publishers Weekly

In this brief, excellent volume written for Arthur Schlesinger's American Presidents series, Columbia professor emeritus Graff (The Tuesday Cabinet) picks up the often neglected Grover Cleveland, dusts him off and reminds us how substantial he was. After serving as mayor of Buffalo and governor of New York, Cleveland (1837-1908) was the first Democrat to be elected president after the Civil War. He forced America's railroad titans to return 81,000,000 western acres previously granted by the federal government and regulated them with the Interstate Commerce Act. Although defeated in the electoral college by Benjamin Harrison in 1888, Cleveland won the popular vote, which set the stage for his return to the presidency in 1892 in the midst of nationwide depression. As usual, Cleveland acted decisively. He repealed the inflationary Sherman Silver Purchase Act and, with the aid of Wall Street, maintained the Treasury's gold reserve. When Chicago railroad strikers violated an injunction against further disruption, Cleveland dispatched federal troops. Cleveland's no-nonsense treatment of the strikers stirred many Americans, as did the way he forced Great Britain to accept arbitration of a disputed boundary in Venezuela. But many of Cleveland's hard-hitting policies during the depression proved unpopular in the long term; in 1896, his party nominated William Jennings Bryan for the presidency. In clean, matter-of-fact prose, Graff sums up the plainspoken Cleveland as a man of action and uncompromising integrity a man who, though publicly identified as the father of a bastard child, nevertheless restored dignity to the office of the president in the wake of several weak administrations. (Aug. 20) Forecast: Because Cleveland lacks the popular appeal of Teddy Roosevelt or James Madison (with bios already published in this series), this fine volume may be more for completists. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

As part of the "American Presidents" series under the editorial direction of Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., distinguished historian Graff (America: The Glorious Republic, to 1877) offers new insight into a President who is often overlooked. Best known as the only President to serve two nonconsecutive terms, Cleveland does indeed deserve Graff's fresh examination. The 1888 Presidential election was marked by one of the earliest and most virulent attacks on the personal behavior of a candidate when Cleveland was accused of fathering a child out of wedlock. But the candidate took full responsibility for the child (an act Graff refers to as "the gold standard" for such circumstances), and in the end the incident did not cause Cleveland to lose the election. Graff's examination of the 1888 election is one of the finest short reviews of that peculiar race available. Cleveland had a narrow view of the President's powers and did not exert the more expansive leadership that would characterize later Presidents. But he was an able administrator and pursued a clean-government agenda. This slim volume is a valuable addition to the literature on the Presidency and is a compelling argument for taking Cleveland seriously as a President. For political collections of public libraries.-Michael A. Genovese, Loyola Marymount Univ., Los Angeles Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Slender but deftly sketched assessment of our 22nd and 24th president. Physically imposing in life, Grover Cleveland is largely forgotten now, except for the oddity that he was the only president to have served two nonconsecutive terms in office (1885-89 and 1893-97). He deserves better from historians, argues Graff (Professor Emeritus, History/Columbia Univ.), who points out Cleveland's political domination of his time: a politician of integrity, sincerity, and decency at a time of widespread political corruption. As such, Cleveland won the popular vote for president three times in a row-he lost the electoral vote to Benjamin Harrison in 1888-and was revered by millions of his contemporaries. Compelled to forego college after the early death of his father, the young Cleveland settled down to read law in Buffalo. Cleveland quickly rose to prominence as a Buffalo attorney, and his close relationship with influential New York Democratic kingmaker Daniel Manning resulted in short, successful stints as mayor of Buffalo and governor of New York. In these early jobs, he established the themes of sound administration, resistance to pork-barrel politics, and general fairness that distinguished him later as president. In that office, he saw civil-service reform of government and articulated a foreign policy of fair play-he disapproved of the coup that overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy, for instance-that contrasted with the imperialism of successor Teddy Roosevelt. In Graff's study, striking differences between Cleveland's era and ours emerge: pretending disinterest while subordinates ran the campaign, Cleveland and his opponents passively "stood" for office instead of running for it. In addition,Cleveland was a "gray personality" whose coarse appearance, heavy body, and unspectacular memorized speeches might have disqualified him for the presidency in the age of television. Graff does not see Cleveland as a visionary figure, but as a transition between the 19th century's ideal of a limited presidency and our more expansive modern view of the office. An absorbing study of an undeservedly forgotten president.

Table of Contents:

	Editor's Note	xv
	Prologue	1
1.	Early Years	3
2.	A Career in Buffalo	12
3.	Governor of New York	21
4.	The Making of a President	43
5.	In the White House	67
6.	Defeated for Reelection	90
7.	An Interregnum	98
8.	The Return to Power	111
9.	End of the Road	130
	Epilogue	137
	Milestones	139
	Selected Bibliography	143
	Index	145

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Health Care USA: Understanding Its Organization and Delivery

Author: Harry A Sultz

Health Care USA: Understanding Its Organization and Delivery, Second Edition reflects recent major legislative changes that have occurred in Medicare, Medicaid and public health. The growing concern about mental health services will be covered by taking a close look at emerging behavioral health managed care organizations. The new edition will also reflect the increased penetration of managed care across the country and its effect on not only the health care industry, but also on consumers. Current benchmarks in all areas of health care will be thoroughly updated. Also, an Instructor's Manual is available to support this book.

Eugene C. Rich

This is a relatively brief (320 page) introductory textbook on the U.S. healthcare system written for students in the health professions. The purpose is to provide a text for introductory courses on the U.S. healthcare system for students entering the health professions, including public health, medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, and allied health. As such, the audience is students in the health professions. To facilitate its use as a teaching text, the authors have organized this book in a succession of chapters intended to stand alone as reviews of specific subjects, or when read sequentially, to build a comprehensive understanding of the U.S. healthcare system. Therefore, this book begins with two general chapters followed by a series of topics organized around different structural features of the delivery system (e.g., hospitals, ambulatory care, medical education, etc.). The book also includes chapters on general topics, such as healthcare personnel, finance, and healthcare research, and concludes with a brief reflection on the future of U.S. healthcare. There is a helpful list of abbreviations at the end, which can assist students grappling with the alphabet soup of the U.S. healthcare system. The authors' effort to organize this text in chapters that stand alone and provide incremental information poses a challenge to the book as a coherent whole. As a result, key topics (the aging U.S. population, Medicare, managed care) receive brief and overlapping discussion in several chapters, rather than focused, thorough treatment. Other important developments such as physician assistants, nurse practitioners, the NIH, and the biotechnology industry receive limited attention.References for some chapters are quite limited and often do not include key source material for students who may wish to explore the topic further.

James D. Bramble

This is a general text on the organization and delivery of healthcare services. This second edition is updated with significant developments. The purpose is to provide a broad and general overview of the healthcare system. This book is intended for use as text for introductory courses on the organization and delivery of healthcare services. Thus it is primarily intended for students pursuing education as clinicians, administrators, policy makers, or other allied health professions within the healthcare system. The chapters are self-explanatory and can stand alone; however, when combined with the other chapters, they build a comprehensive picture of the U.S. healthcare system. The authors provide a brief discussion of the development and current status of our healthcare system, present the specific healthcare players and policies, and end with a chapter concerning the future of the healthcare system. Specific subjects include the different organizational structures, healthcare personnel, and policies that are integral in the delivery of healthcare services. An appendix of acronyms will be very useful to the reader. This book covers the essential topics for understanding the U.S. healthcare system. Though admittedly lacking in detail, the breadth of the text provides the beginning student with an understanding of the more vital components of our delivery system. An easily read text allows one to begin to understand an ever-increasingly complex healthcare system. However, because of the book's intent, many important topics only receive minimal attention that serves to detract from the text's comprehensiveness.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer: James D. Bramble, PhD (Creighton University)
Description: This is an update of a general book on the organization and delivery of healthcare services.
Purpose: The purpose is to provide a clear understanding and overview of the healthcare system and the complicated and complex issues that it confronts. This is a useful book for courses on the organization and delivery of healthcare services.
Audience: Intended for students of healthcare and related professions, healthcare practitioners can also benefit from the broad understanding of the U.S. healthcare system addressed in this book.
Features: The chapters together provide a broad overview of the social and political forces that help shape the complex structures and processes of the U.S. healthcare system. Each chapter begins with a brief description of its contents and is able to stand alone for the reader wishing to study specific topics. In addition to an appendix of acronyms, the authors included a list of web site address of U.S. government and other related healthcare sites for the reader.
Assessment: Updates to this edition provide relevant recent studies and statistics that further the discussion started in the previous edition. The breadth of the book seems more than adequate to familiarize the reader with the U.S. healthcare system. By the authors' own admission, however, readers from allied health professions (i.e., physical therapy) may be disappointed with the lack of specifics regarding their area of specialty. Nonetheless, allied healthcare providers need a greater understanding of the issues affecting the healthcare delivery system in which they work. With easy to read and well organized chapters accompanied by appropriate figures and tables, this book accomplishes its goal of providing a basic broad understanding of the American healthcare system.

Booknews

This text for introductory courses on the organization of health at schools and colleges that prepare health professionals is designed to provide the reader with an understanding of the total health care system. Writing from a population perspective, the authors cover such topics as hospital reengineering, ambulatory and long-term care, medical education, health care personnel, finance and managed care, and mental health service. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

Describes the changing roles and functions of health care in the US, and looks at the technical, economic, political, and social forces responsible for those changes. This edition integrates recent trends in health care costs, and discusses the effect of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, managed care industry consolidation, and changing professional prerogatives of physicians. There is expanded information on nursing and allied health functions. For students of health care and related professions. Sultz is affiliated with the State University of New York-Buffalo. Young teaches social and preventive medicine at the same institution. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Rating

3 Stars from Doody