Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison

by Allen M. Hornblum

Overview

At a time of increased interest and renewed shock over the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, Acres of Skin sheds light on yet another dark episode of American medical history. In this disturbing expose, Allen M. Hornblum tells the story of Philadelphia's Holmesburg Prison.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781134001644
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/13/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Lexile:	1520L (what's this?)
File size:	679 KB

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

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

What People are Saying About This

Buzz Bissinger

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.
— Author of A Prayer for the City

Editorial Reviews

Relying on prisoners' firsthand reports, Hornblum has written a thorough account of the questionable medical experimentation carried out in Philadelphia's Holmesburg Prison from the mid-1940s to 1974. Research on everything from cosmetics to chemical warfare agents was conducted there, often with minimal or no record- keeping. Such research raises serious ethical issues. Throughout, Hornblum asks whether prisoners can give informed consent, particularly when the potential consequences of the research are not fully explained. Although most of the book centers on Holmesburg, Hornblum does cite other prisons across the country where similar practices took place before they received widespread condemnation in the 1970s. What is shocking about this is that it did not happen in the distant past but in our own generation, with the doctors involved still in practice. Frighteningly, Hornblum reveals that at the Nuremberg trials Nazi doctors cited American prison practices as a defense for their nefarious medical experiments in the camps. -- Eric D. Albright, Duke Medical Center Library, Durham, NC

Library Journal

Hornblum has masterfully retold this tale.

Philadelphia Inquirer

"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

From the Publisher