Barber (Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation) tells a rousing story of citizen disruption centered on the Community Health Center (CHC) in Middletown, Connecticut. Starting from a small free dental clinic, the CHC grew into a free health care institution serving thousands each year and having a positive impact on people—and other nonprofits inspired by its success—across the country. Although it faced opposition from the medical establishment, political leaders, and what Barber identifies as its home state’s “steady habits,” the CHC overcame these challenges to provide care for many people who desperately needed it. The book closes with a description of the CHC’s work in managing and staffing mass vaccination clinics for COVID-19, which Barber sees as proof of the institution’s continued ability to treat patients with a “consuming relentlessness.”

Barber centers the story on the contributions, philosophy, and organizational skills of Mark Masselli, who founded CHC at age 22 and eventually saw it flourish, but he also describes the many other people who have contributed to the success of the institution over the years, from Lillian Reba Moses, a leader in the Middletown community and long-time board member to Margaret Flinter, a nurse practitioner who joined CHC in 1980 and transformed its clinical care. Peace & Health is rich in illustrations, providing strong visual appeal to go along with the compelling story.

The story of the CHC is, in many ways, the story of the free clinic movement in America – from its founding as one of a wave of clinics to the Community Development Block Grant program and its eventual status as a Federally Qualified Health Center (and FQHC Look-Alike). Barber does an excellent job sharing the CHC’s history—and its vision of health care as a right. A reader interested in the history of free clinics, or health care in general, will find Peace & Health fascinating and inspiring.

Takeaway: The fascinating story of Connecticut’s Community Health Center, a visionary free clinic.

Great for fans of: Gregory L. Weiss’s Grassroots Medicine, Catherine Mas’s Culture in the Clinic.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-