DOCTOR
AUTHOR
COMMUNITY ORGANIZER
MICHAEL FINE
BOOKS
AVAILABLE NOW!
THE JEWISH PRINCE OF DENMARK
Jewish Stories. Jew-ish Stories. Stories about Jews and non-Jews, living together in a confusing world and trying to find a way to continue to do so, in a world that keeps changing, collapsing in on itself, the ground changing under everyone’s feet. Stories about small choices, small acts, small ideas, simple decencies, the way people and a people take care of one another, people who live in the shadow of the valley of death but persevere.
But be careful: if you think you see the shadow of something bigger in these little stories or hear something more resounding in the echo of what sounds at first like only a still small voice….that is likely to be only your imagination, only a mirage. Perhaps.
AVAILABLE NOW!
ON MEDICINE AS COLONIALISM
In this strident, necessary, meticulously researched book Michael Fine shows how the Covid-19 pandemic has thrown the costly failure of the American health care system into bold relief. At over one million deaths and climbing, the US had more deaths than any other nation in the world and one of the highest per capita death rates. On Medicine as Colonialism shows how the American health care system cannibalizes communities in the US and around the world.
Focusing on how health care profiteers use state’s power and control of health care purchasing to extract resources from communities, On Medicine as Colonialism reveals how medicine and health care have become not only antithetical to health but tools of colonialism, that are being used to dismantle democracy itself.
“On Medicine as Colonialism details the sociopolitical realities that undergird health injustice and offers a realistic perspective on achieving health equity.” —Jewel Mullen, MD, MPH, Dell Medical School, UT Austin
“A sobering diatribe on health care in America.” —David N. Sundwall, former executive director of the Utah Department of Health
“Michael Fine wins his big-hearted argument that American medicine is colonialism, not just for the poor but for all of us. It is a desecration of our health care system by the same old robber barons. . . . This doctor-activist is pointing us to solutions. Everyone should read it.” —Samuel Shem, author and professor of medical humanities, NYU Medical School
"Fine writes with the eye of both a humanist and a practitioner. . . . His passion for individual lives and concern for the common good is what drives his outrage at what has been wrought.” —Christopher Koller, president of the Milbank Fund, from the foreword
RHODE ISLAND STORIES
Rhode Island. A tiny little state with more stories than people. People from Hungary, Nigeria, Poland, Ireland, Canada, Honduras, Liberia, El Salvador, Cape Verde and Mexico. But also Providence, Pawtucket, North Providence, Central Falls, South Kingston, Johnston, Scituate and Glocester. Farmers, violinists, firefighters, organizers, adjunct professors, landlords, internet entrepreneurs, administrators, cops, nurses, crooks, shop owners. Hopes and dreams, sicknesses, deaths and disappointments. Loves and heartbreaks. Some trying to repair the world. Others overwhelmed by the beauty of the world as it is. All in one place, becoming one people. What democracy looks like.
THE BULL AND OTHER STORIES
10 stories. People whose lives are transformed. People who struggle and survive, who see their world through lost hopes, inappropriate loves, and irrational dreams. 10 stories, each one a new way to listen, see, feel and dream. 2021 IPNE Book Award Winner for Literary Fiction.
ABUNDANCE
Liberia, a nation of four to four and a half million people in West Africa, is about the same size as the US state of Tennessee. It is a place of many languages and many communities.
In 1989, Liberia entered a long period of brutal civil wars, which lasted until 2003. The years between 1989 and 2003 were years of unimaginable cruelty in Liberia, years of murder, rape, dismemberment, and chaos.
Two young Americans go to Liberia in 2003, looking to find something missing in themselves. They find one another, are separated by war, and then struggle to find one another again. Abundance is the story of that struggle, but also about what’s missing in America, about starvation in the midst of plenty and about our struggle to be one people despite the many temptations that pull us apart.
"Abundance is a powerful first novel, an epic stretching from the civil wars of Liberia to the streets of Rhode Island. It’s about the violence we practice on each other and the power of humanity to overcome it. A joy to read."
-Paul J. Stekler Emmy award winning political documentary filmmaker
HEALTH CARE REVOLT
The U.S. does not have a health system. Instead we have a marketplace in which allows the 1 percent to profit from the public’s ill-health. This market has accelerated the erosion of American democracy by contributing to economic polarization. Health Care Revolt looks around the world for examples of health care systems that are effective and affordable, pictures such a system for the U.S., and creates a practical playbook to build political revolution in health care that will allow the nation to improve it's health while strengthening democracy.
“Michael Fine has given us an extraordinary biopic on health care in America based on the authority of his 40-year career as writer, community organizer, family physician, and public health official. In Health Care Revolt, he channels the core frustration felt by so many, providing a compelling commentary for a nation confused about which health care direction to travel.”
-Fitzhugh Mullan, Professor of Health Policy at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University
THE NATURE OF HEALTH
This pioneering work addresses a key issue that confronts all industrialized nations: How do we organize healthcare services in accordance with fundamental human rights, whilst competing with scientific and technological advances, powerful commercial interests and widespread public ignorance? "The Nature of Health" presents a coherent, affordable and logical way to build a healthcare system. It argues against a health system fixated on the pursuit of longevity and suggests an alternative where the ability of an individual to function in worthwhile relationships is a better, more human goal. By reviewing the etymology, sociology and anthropology of health, this controversial guide examines the meaning of health, and proves how a community-centered healthcare system improves local economy, creates social capital and is affordable, rational, personal, and just.
THE ZERO CALORIE DIET
The Zero Calorie Diet - How To Eat Right -Or Not At All! Is a book about fasting - about eating, not eating, eating less, and about the commercialization of food - and everything else -- in our bloated culture. Written by a family doctor, The Zero Calorie Diet examines the physiology of fasting and nutrition, so everyone can understand how much food the body really needs, what stimulates hunger, and how not to eat, even in a world where calories are everywhere.