"[T]he strength of Obenchain's book lies in his attention to multiple contexts--institutional, professional, theoretical, political, social, and historical--that defined each period of Semmelweis's career, begginning with the simultaneous stagnation and innovation that marked a tempestuous period in the history of the Vienna General Hospital (Allegemeines Krankenhous), the hostile setting is which Semmelweis did his research and instituted effective preventive measures. Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; practitioners and general readers."
-CHOICE
"Without a doubt and without any exaggeration, this book is the best thing that has been written about Semmelweis. It shows incredibly thorough research, it is balanced, it is clear, it is totally persuasive, it is even a fantastically good read! . . . Its medical detail is impressive and exceeds that in any other account of the doctor's life. Obenchain's argument that Semmelweis suffered from bipolar disorder is original, and no other work has supported the hypothesis of Semmelweis's mental illness so thoroughly."
-K. Codell Carter, author of Childbed Fever: A Scientific Biography of Ignaz Semmelweis and translator of Semmelweis's The Etiology, Concept, and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever
"Obenchain carefully addresses the complex, and at times confusing, sources of Semmelweis's personality disorders. This is a well-researched, well-written, sympathetic account of an important figure in nineteenth-century medicine."
-Michael A. Flannery, author of Civil War Pharmacy: A History of Drugs, Drug Supply and Provisions, and Therapeutics for the Union and Confederacy and editor of The English Physician