| International Standard Book Number |
9781493088058
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| International Standard Book Number |
149308805X
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| Dewey Decimal Classification Number |
610.9
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| Dewey Decimal Classification Number |
974.7/102
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| Personal Name |
McPhee, Andy, author.
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| Title Statement |
The Doctors' Riot of 1788 : body snatching, bloodletting, and anatomy in America / Andy McPhee.
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| Imprint |
©2026.
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| Imprint |
Essex, Conn. : Prometheus Books, [2026]
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| Physical Description |
xv, 228 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
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| Bibliography, Etc. Note |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 187-218) and index.
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| Formatted Contents Note |
Author's note -- Preface -- Medicine's moral conundrum -- A nation at peace and in trumoil -- Life in the New Republic -- Dissection through the ages -- medical melee -- Bullets, bloodletting, and bayonets -- Resurrection, decay, and dissection -- Building a nation -- Tensions surge -- The obnoxious Dr. Hicks -- Hunting for the cursed dissectors -- Battle of Bridewell -- Burking, bone bills, and embalming -- Ulysses, Sir, and celebrating donors -- Acknowledgments -- Apendix -- Notes -- Selected references -- Index -- About the author.
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| Summary, Etc. |
"Throughout the seventeenth century, medical lecturers demonstrated human anatomy by dissecting a cadaver while surrounded by students. After the Revolutionary War, though, instructors realized they needed many more cadavers to serve a growing number of medical students. Enter the 'resurrectionists'--body snatchers. In April 1788, word of one particular body snatching quickly spread, and over the course of days, thousands of New Yorkers descended upon a New York City anatomy lab in a growing and dangerous riot against doctors and their students. In this fascinating history, Andy McPhee reveals the forgotten story of the so-called Doctors' Riot of 1788, along the way explaining the history of body snatching and exploring the moral questions behind an existential medical crisis: Does the need for medical students to learn anatomy on cadavers override society's demand for maintaining the dignity of its dead? As the Doctors' Riot boiled over, Founding Fathers Alexander Hamilton and John Jay as well as Revolutionary War hero Baron von Steuben were called in to quell the rioters, to no avail. Eventually, the state militia was ordered to fire into the crowd, killing several and injuring far more. The Doctors' Riot of 1788 traces the foundational changes spurred by the riot, the formation of Black-only churches and graveyards, how the discovery of formaldehyde heralded a new era in embalming practices, what body snatching looks like today, and how the teaching of anatomy continues to change and adapt to new technologies." -author's website.
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| Subject |
Columbia College (New York, N.Y.) History 18th century.
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| Subject Added Entry - Topical Term |
Grave robbing New York (State) New York History 18th century.
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| Subject Added Entry - Topical Term |
Body snatching New York (State) New York History 18th century.
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| Subject Added Entry - Topical Term |
African American cemeteries New York (State) New York History 18th century.
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| Subject Added Entry - Topical Term |
Anatomy Study and teaching New York (State) New York History 18th century.
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| Subject Added Entry - Topical Term |
Racism in medicine History 18th century.
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| Subject Added Entry - Topical Term |
Human dissection History 18th century.
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| Added Entry, Variant Title |
Body snatching, bloodletting, and anatomy in America.
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