When Ronald Reagan chose C. Everett Koop to be Surgeon General of the United States in 1981, liberal politicians, women's groups, and even the public health community opposed the nomination because of his conservative social views and strong anti-abortion beliefs. By the time he left office in 1989, the same people who had vilified him as 'Dr. Kook' were singing his praises, and many conservative politicians and activists were criticizing him as a traitor. How had Koop remade himself and this once major government office, which sounded grand but in the 1960s had been stripped to a minor advisory role?

As Nigel M. de S. Cameron shows, Koop was, above all, guided in his decisions by his unwavering physician's commitment to saving lives. Even in the face of political pressures and what many expected to be his personal beliefs, he focused on science and public health. Both supporters and detractors consistently misjudged him.

This first full biography of Koop draws on thousands of documents and hundreds of interviews with family, friends, and colleagues to tell the story of the precocious boy from Brooklyn who would become one of the most recognizable public figures in late-twentieth-century America. Koop remains a sterling example—to both left and right—of how public officials should conduct themselves.