Describes the development of rehabilitation medicine from its inception in World War I and World War II through its expansion during the 1980s, as stimulated by the Medicare program. The book describes how the field developed in response to the need for care and rehabilitation of wounded soldiers, disabled veterans, and members of the workforce in the 1940s and 1950s. The book ends with the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which embodied the vision and goals of rehabilitative medicine since the 1960s.--From publisher's description.

1. Setting the stage -- 2. In the beginning : the early years of the founders of rehabilitation medicine -- 3. The roots of rehabilitation medicine in the progressive era, 1900 to 1920 -- 4. The 1920s and small steps forward -- 5. The thirties, medicine, social insurance, and rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic -- 6. World War II, Howard Rusk, Henry Kessler, and the Baruch Committee -- 7. The immediate postwar years : the VA, private rehabilitation facilities, unions, and a medical specialty in PM&R -- 8. Polio, FDR, and rehabilitation medicine -- 9. The expansive 1950s : rehabilitation medicine develops under the leadership of Mary Switzer and Howard Rusk -- 10. Rehabilitation leadership in the turbulent 1960s and the end of an era -- 11. The 1970s : vulnerability, new leadership, and the disability movement -- 12. The 1970s : congressional leadership and the golden era for comprehensive rehabilitation and disability policy -- 13. The 1980s : Medicare expansion, rehabilitation research at NIH, and the maturation of rehabilitation medicine -- 14. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and comprehensive rehabilitation medicine -- 15. A brief epilogue.