Following criticisms of the traditionally polarized view of understanding suffering through either medicine or social justice, Lowe makes a compelling argument for how the medical humanities can help to go beyond the traditional biographical and epistemic breaks to see into the nature and properties of suffering and what is at stake. Lowe demonstrates through analysis of major healthcare workforce issues and incidence of burnout how key policies and practices influence healthcare education and experiences of both patients and health professionals. By including first person narratives from health professionals as a tool and resource, she illustrates how dominant ideas about the self enter practice as a refusal of suffering. Demonstrating the relationship between personal experience, theory and research, Lowe argues for a pedagogy of suffering that shows how the moral anguish implicit in suffering is an ethical response of the emergent self. This is an important read for all those interested in medical humanities, health professional education, person-centred care and the sociology of health and illness.

"An insightful and well-written book. One of the best studies of local Jewish history extant."--Leonard Dinnerstein, University of Arizona
For more than a century and a half, the Jewish citizens of the area in and around Knoxville, Tennessee, have maintained the rituals and traditions that define them as a separate people, even as they have blended quietly with their non-Jewish neighbors.
Wendy Lowe Besmann paints a vivid picture of this community, bringing alive the stories of merchants, grocers, immigrants from Eastern Europe, and scientists and university professionals who have come to call the area home. Drawing on interviews and other sources, she traces the growth of local synagogues, explores the role of Jewish community centers, looks at how children were shaped by school and Temple life, and even recalls the community's summer vacations at nearby Neubert Springs.
With broad historical sweep, Besmann examines what life was like for Knoxville's early Jewish community and how the events of their lives were affected by American expansion and depression, by social upheaval and urban migration. Successive waves of immigrants, from the traveling peddlers of the late nineteenth century to the doctors, lawyers, and engineers of the late twentieth, have both adapted to the culture of East Tennessee and shaped it in subtle ways. As they did in cities all over the South, Knoxville's Jewish population followed jobs, meaning that most of them did not grow up in the region.
Besmann looks at topics as diverse as patterns of chain migration, the role of Jewish merchants in the Civil War, and the contributions of a Jewish-owned music store to the career of Elvis Presley. She describes the vital role of ritual and celebration in the community, from the importance placed on religious education to the songs played at bar mitzvahs.
The Author: Wendy Lowe Besmann is a freelance writer whose work has been published in The New York Times, USA Today, The Atlantic, Self, and Better Homes & Gardens. She lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Amid the English Civil War, the daughter of a royal courtier escapes her forced betrothal and takes refuge in the Jewish Quarter of Amsterdam during the Golden Age when Dutch Masters painted, merchants grew rich trading in exotic luxuries, and modern medicine was born. Along the way, Susanna Worthington must risk taking help from the mysterious Captain David Winn, despite prophetic dreams that he will kill her some day.

Team Up for Your Child: A Step-By-Step Guide to Working Smarter with Doctors, Schools, Insurers and Agencies, is a user-friendly workbook for families of the 25 million American children with behavioral health problems--from ADHD to autism to psychiatric and developmental disorders. Easy charts and worksheets turn a bewildering mess into tasks a parent can handle. Created by a parent in consultation with 23 health and education professionals, this guide is packed with family tested tips and techniques that make a tough job easier. Sponsored by NAMI Tennessee, an affiliate of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) the nation's largest grassroots organization for persons with mental illness, their families and communities.