Book excerpt: This book is the first definitive, descriptive history of the Charity Hospital System of Louisiana, a story of how poverty, politics, public health, public interest, race, gender, and class, shaped the long history of one of the most storied public healthcare systems in the state and nation, to be published in a single volume. Over a period of more than 270 years, a total of ten charity hospitals were established in different venues of the state and evolved into one of the most celebrated public healthcare systems in the country.