History of medicine Books

Meet the brilliant mavericks who invented the future of medicine and saved the lives of millions.The Essence of Invention tells the story of medical invention, from the development of anesthesia and safe surgery, through to the advent of vaccines against...

This book uses amputation and prostheses to tell a new story about medicine and embodied knowledge-making in early modern Europe. It draws on the writings of craft surgeons and learned physicians to follow the heated debates that arose from changing...

Nose reconstructions have been common in India for centuries. South Korea, Brazil, and Israel have become international centers for procedures ranging from eyelid restructuring to buttock lifts and tummy tucks. Argentina has the highest rate of silicone...

HIV and AIDS devastated communities across Australia in the 1980s and 1990s. In the midst of this profound health crisis, nurses provided crucial care to those living with and dying from the virus. They negotiated homophobia and complex family dynamics...

The strange and surprising history of the so-called epidemic of bad posture in modern America - from eugenics and posture pageants to today's promoters of 'paleo posture.'In 1995, a scandal erupted when the New York Times revealed that...

This provocative, deeply personal book explores how women experience mental health care differently than men and lays out how the system must change for women to flourish.Why are so many women feeling anxious, stressed out, and depressed, and why are...

The second-century Greek physician Galen - the most famous doctor in antiquity after Hippocrates - is a central figure in Western medicine. A talented doctor, surgeon, writer, philosopher, teacher, pharmacologist, and inventor, Galen attended the court...

What common condition can be treated with cow dung? How do crushed oystershells ease heartburn? Can eels cure deafness? And how do you stop a stubborn case of the hiccups? If someone was struck down by illness or injury in the late eighteenth century,...

A surprising investigation of a scientific instrument long at the pulse of medicine. This book explores the colourful past, present and future of an instrument that is, quite literally, close to our hearts. The stethoscope has become the symbol of...

In this panoramic and up-to-date account, we learn how the Black Death, smallpox, the Spanish flu and other great epidemics have led to enormous sufferings and mass death, as well as contributing to the fall of empires and changing the course of history...

A magisterial account by Roy Porter of representations of the body in health, disease and deathIn this historical tour de force, now available in B-format paperback, Roy Porter takes a critical look at representations of the body in health, disease and...

This book may offer a cautionary tale in the age of Covid-19. The narratives we shape around disease in society are so often about politics, and the competing versions of leprosy eradication's story are no exception.In one telling, the extra-budgetary...

A sweeping biography of the visionary behind bone marrow transplantation and the story of the diseases cured by Don Thomas's discovery.In the last half of the twentieth century, Thomas himself discovered a cure for every marrow-based disease-like...

A suspenseful, authoritative account of how the battle against a mid-century polio epidemic sparked a revolution in medical care.Americans knew polio as the 'summer plague'. In countries further North, however, the virus arrived later...

The 1964 murder of a nationally known cancer researcher sets the stage for this gripping expose of medical professionals enmeshed in covert government operations over the course of three decades. Following a trail of police records, FBI files, cancer...

From prescribing the "rest cure" to diagnosing hysteria, the medical profession has consistently treated women as weak and pathological. Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English's concise history of the sexual politics of medical practices shows how this...

This is the first publication to investigate the rise of alcohol as a medical problem within a variety of countries and political and cultural contexts.The medicalisation of alcohol use has become a prominent discourse that guides policy makers and...

An Informative Read for an Audience Interested in Why and How Medical Cannabis Helps Treat a Range of Illnesses--Maybe All of ThemWith cannabis approved in fourteen states (including the District and two US territories), medical cannabis approved in at...

This second edition contains an afterword on COVID-19, looking at the origins and nature of the virus, and how governments across the globe dealt with the most serious public health emergency in a century.A Short History of Disease chronicles the...

This fascinating book looks at the phenomenon of murder and poisoning in the nineteenth century. Focusing on the case of William Palmer, a medical doctor who in 1856 was convicted of murder by poisoning, it examines how his case baffled toxicologists,...

"The Great Starvation Experiment is wide-ranging, weaving progress in the war into the day-to-day suffering of the hungry volunteers." -Saint Paul Pioneer Press"Fascinating . . ." -Minneapolis Star TribuneNear the end of World War II, thirty-six...

Giants is a moving and inspirational story of survival, of a troupe of seven dwarf siblings, whose story starts like a fairy tale, before moving into the darkest moments of their history; the darkest moments of modern history. At a time when the phrase...