American Cardiology: The History of a Specialty and its College

W Bruce Fye Johns Hopkins University Press, £20, pp 489 ISBN 0 8018 5292 7 Bruce Fye's book originated as the 40th anniversary narrative of the American College of Cardiology, but Dr Fye has wisely described the college's story within the much wider framework of the history of cardiology in the United States. The result is an absorbing and very well written chronicle of, for example, how new technology catalysed the growth of cardiology, and of how warring factions in various organisations battled with each other to promote their own version of the true way ahead. I found it exciting reading. It was the electrocardiograph that enabled physicians to become differentiated as …