Review of American Sirens

American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America's First Paramedics by Kevin Hazzard

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book was a fascinating read! I vaguely knew ambulance services before the 1970s were very primitive, but until I read this book I had no idea how primitive. I was also not aware of the racial and political problems with US ambulance services.

This book is a character-driven tale of how an Austrian immigrant doctor and a bunch of Black community activists literally wrote the book on emergency medicine in Pittsburgh in the 1960s. They had to fight doctors, police (who were the ambulance service in Pittsburgh) and government inertia. It is an enlightening and entertaining read.



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