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Reviewed by Mansoor Ahmed for Readers' Favorite
Rabble Rouser is John L. Skosey's firsthand account of the fight to save the University of Illinois Hospital in 1989, a battle he led as President of the Medical Staff. The trouble begins one week before Christmas 1988, when University President Stanley O. Ikenberry announces a plan to close the hospital entirely and hand it over to Cook County while moving teaching duties to Michael Reese Hospital. Skosey and his colleagues, later nicknamed the RUMPS, organize quickly, pulling in faculty, community groups, and elected officials to fight a plan that would require an act of the Illinois General Assembly to succeed. What follows is a six-month campaign fought through board meetings, newspaper editorials, political maneuvering in Springfield, and a class action suit, all building toward a legislative vote that would decide the hospital's fate and the future of medical care on Chicago's west side.
John L. Skosey writes with the precision of someone who kept meticulous records, and the book benefits from his access to original letters, memos, and newspaper clippings that ground every chapter in real documentation rather than vague recollection. The pacing moves briskly through short, dated chapters that mirror the real unfolding of events, from "The Announcement" to "Down to the Wire," which keeps the political maneuvering easy to follow even for readers unfamiliar with the history. Skosey himself comes through as a determined, occasionally exasperated narrator, and supporting figures like Dean Forman and the changing cast of politicians add real texture to the fight. The themes of grassroots persistence against institutional power give the book its drive, and I appreciated how candidly Skosey includes his wife Connie's own reflections in the addendum. Rabble Rouser is a detailed, well-documented account of an underdog fight worth remembering.
