Popularly known as Saskatchewan's Red Dean because of his progressive views and strong support of Canada's first medicare plan, J. Wendell Macleod (1905-2001) was a charismatic pioneer in social medicine and medical education. Louis Horlick mines Macleod's diaries, which span seventy-five years, in a vivid biography that also depicts the social and political complexities of health care in Canada in the twentieth century.

Macleod was an ardent believer in the social principles of health care. His early awareness of the economic chasm that separated rich from poor provided the focal point of his career as first dean of medicine at the University of Saskatchewan - he taught that understanding the social, economic, and political world in which people lived was critical to good medical education and practice and made it the core of the curriculum.

J. Wendell Macleod offers a revealing portrait of an early advocate of universal health care who passionately advanced his social agenda in his profession and practice. Macleod was appointed an officer of the Order of Canada in 1980.