This article makes a review of 1.) dominant analyses of health and medicine in the social sciences of the U.S. and 2.) Marxist critiques of these analyses. It presents the roots of Marxist scholarship in the study of health and medicine and discusses the main Marxist critiques of the hegemonic pluralist and power elite interpretations of the institutions of medicine and of their corporatization. It also reviews Marxist studies of 1.) the crisis of medicine; 2.) the relationship between production, work, and health; and 3.) imperialism, health, and medicine. It concludes with a discussion of the operational meaning of Marxism in health and medicine, with presentation of current Marxist debates on socialist medicine and their consequence for political praxis.
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