July 30, 2020
Books and publications about our history
Interested in learning more about the history of Kaiser Permanente and its founders? These books are good resources to start with.
Book cover: 'The Story of Dr. Sidney R. Garfield — The Visionary Who Turned Sick Care into Health Care' with color illustration of Dr. Garfield.
Some of these titles are out of print, but copies can be located through libraries and mainstream used-book sellers.
The Story of Dr. Sidney R. Garfield: The Visionary Who Turned Sick Care Into Health Care
By Tom Debley with Jon Stewart
The first biography of Dr. Garfield tells the story of his long and eventful career, during which he turned his 1930s Mojave Desert industrial health care dream into a thriving and enduring reality that continues to offer a practical model for the future of American health care.
The Permanente Press, 2009, 148 pages
Permanente in the Northwest
By Ian C. MacMillan
This book fills a large gap in the history of Kaiser Permanente — the unique contribution made by the Northwest Region, especially in the early years. The author, retired internist Ian C. MacMillan, demonstrates an insider’s insight and enviable access to details that thoroughly enrich this account.
Build ‘Em by the Mile, Cut ’Em Off by the Yard: How Henry J. Kaiser and the Rosies Helped Win World War II
By Steve Gilford
A good overview of the World War II home front experience in the Kaiser Richmond shipyards. The book is written for the general reader and includes many personal anecdotes about home-front life.
Richmond Museum of History, 252 pages, 2011
Courage to Heal
By Paul Bernstein, MD (Permanente physician)
This historical novel tells the story of Kaiser Permanente’s founding physician, Sidney R. Garfield, MD, as he embarked on the challenge of providing care for workers in the remote Mojave Desert in the 1930s, and later mounted a massive program for the WWII shipyard labor force.
Sunbelt Publications, 2008, 229 pages
Cacti, Snakes and Bedpans
By Susan Baecker Grant
Written by the daughter of Kaiser Permanente’s “first nurse,” Betty Runyen, this semi-fictional novel describes events at the remote Mojave Desert hospital in the mid-1930s where Sidney Garfield, MD, first set up his practice to care for construction workers.
Lulu publications, 2013, 262 pages
A Model for National Health Care: The History of Kaiser Permanente
By Rickey Hendricks
This extensively researched book is the definitive academic history of Kaiser Permanente that tells the story of its growth and impact on American health care.
Rutgers University Press, 1993, 265 pages
Embattled Dreams: California in War and Peace, 1940-1950
By Kevin Starr
Part of an extensive history of California series, this book includes discussion of Henry J. Kaiser, his wartime industrial efforts, and the founding of Kaiser Permanente.
Oxford University Press, 2002, 386 pages
Henry J. Kaiser: Builder in the Modern American West
By Mark Foster
In this academic biography, historian Foster offers the definitive balanced view of Kaiser, covering his mistakes as well as his colossal strengths and successes.
University of Texas Press, 1991, 358 pages
Henry Kaiser, Western Colossus
By Albert Heiner
This very readable biography is by a former Kaiser Steel executive who was an eyewitness to much of Henry Kaiser’s career.
Halo Books, 1991, 434 pages
Kaiser Wakes the Doctors
By Paul De Kruif
This book by America’s foremost medical writer of the era was the first ever written about the revolutionary medical care available in the World War II Kaiser shipyards.
Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1943, 158 pages
Kaiser Permanente Health Plan: Why It Works
By Greer Williams
The author was commissioned to investigate Kaiser Permanente to assess “what it is, how it works, and whether it is good or bad.”
Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 1971, 92 pages
Can Physicians Control the Quality and Costs of Health Care? The Story of The Permanente Medical Group
By John G. Smillie, MD
Dr. Smillie, an early Northern California Permanente physician, offers an insider’s view of the beginnings of the Kaiser Permanente medical care program.
McGraw Hill, 1991, 283 pages
The Kaiser Story
By Kaiser Industries
When Henry J. Kaiser passed away in 1967, Kaiser Industries published this short book as a tribute to the company’s founder.
Kaiser Industries, 1968, 72 pages
Life Among the Doctors
By Paul de Kruif
A collection of essays on people the author regarded as pioneers in medicine, including: Sidney Garfield, MD, in a section titled “The Last Maverick;” Edna Schrick, MD, whom de Kruif quotes as suggesting to Dr. Garfield that “we learn how to teach the well to take care of themselves ... to keep away from doctors;” and Herman Kabat, MD, who founded the Kabat-Kaiser Institute, now the Kaiser Foundation Rehabilitation Center in Vallejo, California.
Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1949, 470 pages
Mr. Kaiser Goes to Washington: The Rise of a Government Entrepreneur
By Stephen B. Adams
Historian Adams offers Kaiser’s story as a case study of “government entrepreneurship.” He explores the symbiotic relations forged by Kaiser and President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The University of North Carolina Press, 1997, 239 pages
The Rich Neighbor Policy: Rockefeller and Kaiser in Brazil
By Elizabeth A. Cobbs
Cobbs details how Henry Kaiser’s participation in the Brazilian auto industry impacted U.S. foreign relations and how postwar businessmen sought accommodation with Latin American nationalism by evolving a code of ‘corporate social responsibility.’
Yale University Press, 1992, 273 pages
Historical Review of the Southern California Permanente Medical Group; Its Role in the Development of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in Southern California
By Raymond M. Kay, MD
A history of the SCPMG written by Dr. Raymond Kay, who was Dr. Sidney Garfield’s close friend, a pioneer of the Permanente Medical Groups, and the founder of the Southern California Permanente Medical Group.
SCPMG, 1979, 174 pages
Health Plan: The Only Practical Solution to the Soaring Cost of Medical Care
By Alain C. Einthoven
Written by a Stanford University professor, this is an excellent overview of the issues confronting national health care at the end of the 1970s.
Addison-Wesley, 1980, 196 pages
Promise and Performance in Managed Care — The Prepaid Group Practice Model
By Donald K. Freeborn and Clyde R. Pope,
Kaiser Permanente Northwest Region Center for Health Research
The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994, 170 pages
Kaiser Permanente: A Short History
By Gerry Gaintner
Gerry Gaintner, EdD, was a Kaiser Permanente employee in the information technology department for 15 years, all in the Information Technology department. He wrote this concise history in 2010, and, upon his retirement, gifted it to KP Heritage Resources.
Unpublished, 2011, 42 pages
Available for download (pdf)
