"[ T]he book is an excellent and easy read, full of fresh insights about a hugely significant and understudied building type." - Annmarie Adams, Journal of Architectural Education, McGill University
"By devoting each chapter to a different aspect of the hospital, Arnold highlights an unusually wide range of responses to it, encompassing patrons, inmates, visitors, and property owners. Through a variety of interpretive keys and sources from the metaphorical notion of dirt to Mausss theories about gift-giving, from archival documents to William Hogarths paintings she showcases creative modes of analysis that stretch beyond the usual questions and disciplinary boundaries of architectural history." - Kimberley Skelton, Architectural Histories