Cambridge History Of Medicine , The

Description:
Against the backdrop of unprecedented concern for the future of health care, The Cambridge History of Medicine surveys the rise of medicine in the West from classical times to the present. Covering both the social and scientific history of medicine, this volume traces the chronology of key developments and events, while at the same time engaging with the issues, discoveries, and controversies that have beset and characterized medical progress. The authors weave a narrative that connects disease, doctors, primary care, surgery, the rise of hospitals, drug treatment and pharmacology, mental illness and psychiatry. This volume emphasizes the crucial developments of the past 150 years, but also examines classical, medieval, and Islamic and East Asian medicine. Authoritative and accessible, The Cambridge History of Medicine is for readers wanting a lively and informative introduction to medical history.

Review:
'It is a book by historians about the social and scientific history of medicine. It gives special attention to the past 200 years but also surveys primitive medicine, dating to prehistory. The book is both lucid and readable and ought to be of wide interest.' New England Journal of Medicine, Robert N. Tyson, M.D., University of Washington 'Porter and the other authors of the volume try to present a balanced view of modern medicine, pointing to both its achievements, such as the triumph over contagious diseases, and its problems, such as its overwhelming cost. There is much in this book that is interesting and worth learning about.' H-Histsex, Robin Ganev, Department of History, University of Regina

Table of Contents:
Introduction Roy Porter; 1. The history of disease Kenneth F. Kiple; 2. The rise of medicine Vivian Nutton; 3. What is disease? Roy Porter; 4. Primary care Edward Shorter; 5. Medical science Roy Porter; 6. Hospitals and surgery Roy Porter; 7. Drug treatment and the rise in pharmacology Miles Weatherall; 8. Mental illness Roy Porter; 9. Medicine, society, and the state John Pickston; 10. Looking to the future (1995) Geoff Watts; Addendum: looking to the future revisited Geoff Watts.

Author Biography:
Roy Porter (1946-2002), Professor Emeritus of the Social History of Medicine at the Wellcome Trust Center for the History of Medicine at University College London, was the author of over 200 books and articles, including Doctor of Society: Thomas Beddoes and the Sick Trade in Late Enlightenment England (1991), London: A Social History (1994), The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity (1997), and Bodies Politic: Disease, Death and Doctors in Britain, 1650-1900 (2001).