On New York City's East Side, Bellevue Hospital occupies a colorful and horrifying place in the public imagination: a den of mangled crime victims, vicious psychopaths, and exotic-disease sufferers. In its 250 years of service, nearly every epidemic or social catastrophe—or groundbreaking scientific advance—has touched Bellevue. Here the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Polio: An American Story chronicles Bellvue's transition from almshouse to revered public hospital, an institution that played a crucial role in the modernization of the medical profession and in the battle against AIDS.

"Brilliant and deliciously readable…. The story of Bellevue, Oshinsky convincingly demonstrates, is the story of modern medicine, of New York City, and of America itself."—Boston Globe