First published in 1948, Anderson's Pathology was for many years the principal encyclopedic text of general pathology in North America. It was widely used as a sophomore pathology text for medical students until the appearance of the briefer and zippier Robbins Pathologic Basis of Disease (first edition, 1974) and more recently the even more succinct and colorfully illustrated Pathology, edited by Emanuel Rubin and John L. Farber (first edition, 1988).
The last incarnation of Anderson's Pathology was the 1990 edition edited by John Kissane; this latest edition is a completely new book with two new editors, Ivan Damjanov, chairman of pathology at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, and James Linder, vice chairman at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
The book has exploded from 42 to 80 chapters and from 58 to 170 contributing authors of whom 136 are from the United States. It has nine sections, including