Customer Reviews

The Alarming History of Medicine: Amusing Anecdotes from Hippocrates to Heart Transplants

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Richard Gordon is a physician, a writer and a humorist. His history of medicine is, indeed, alarming. It was not so much what wasn't known that mattered, but what physicians thought they knew and did not. The book is light and quick paced. At times I wished Gordon had quit trying to be funny and had spent a little more time expounding on his massive knowledge of medicine and its history. I am not an expert in this field, but I did make an effort to check some of his facts...and he was right on target. The book is packed with medical trivia and funny gossip (sometimes horrible gossip) about its practitioners. Much of the information is astonishing if not alarming. The book lacks an index, which is infuriating and should be forbidden in these days of computers. It does have a few pages of references. In all I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and I certainly learned a great deal of new and interesting facts, despite the author's obsession with the quick, witty phrase.

Richard Gordon is very witty. However, this book is poorly written and badly organized. There were also a lot of misspellings and other errors which should of been caught in editing. He wanders all over the place and assumes that you are familiar with the history of medicine. I am not, which is why I bought the book. Don't read this book unless you already know the history of medicine or you enjoy being frustrated.

I am fascinated by this subject, hence the reason for my reading this book, and I happen to be British, hence my appreciation of Richard Gordon's humour. After having read numerous histories of medicine and surgery for both my professional and personal interests, I can honestly say that I was finally able to see many of the famous names as people. I loved the parts about the condom laundry and the fact that we humans, along with cows, are physically responsible for the hole in the ozone layer. Just two examples that spring to mind from this mine of humorously viewed information. Informative and a damn good laugh.

This book is not really a history of medicine. It is, rather, a sloppy garage sale of anecdotes, florid sentences, misspellings, poor grammar, and errors of fact (Leeuwenhoek did NOT, as Mr. Gordon states, invent the microscope). The only unifying theme is the author's rampant "humor," but it rarely elucidates the history of medicine. How could St. Martin's Press send this manuscript to the printer without copy editing or proof reading? Beats me.

Reading this book was like trying to walk through waist-deep mud. It is so weighted down with extra, unnecessary words that it just doesn't flow at all. Disappointed, I finally gave up around page 50. Reading Biochemistry was easier & more fun, & that's not saying much!

As stated by several other reviewers, this is a maddeningly random book on the history of medicine that wanders from topic to topic in a loosely organized manner. However, if you are already familiar with some of the major names in the history of medicine, which I was lucky to be before I read this book, it can definitely be enjoyable. The whole book is a jocular series of anecdotes that show the best and the worst of the healers, hacks and quacks involved in medicine from antiquity to the modern day. So... The Alarming History of Medicine is witty but chaotic fun IF you already know a bit about medical history. If you are new to the history of medicine, I'd recommend Doctors: The Biography of Medicine before picking up Gordon's book.

Mr. Gordon wanders all around topics that would be interesting if the reader were able to follow his path. He makes frequent abbreviated references to topics that are difficult to follow.

This is a hard-to-read book.

I picked this up because I was taking a course in immunology and thought this would provide some entertaining background reading. Not the case: it's stuffy writing replete with confusing Britishisms. Additionally, the organization of the text is not in evidence: it's certainly not a history of medicine or of the interactions between civilization and disease. Just random stories, apparently. Gordon's attempt to be entertaining runs firmly aground.

I read this book here in Ceará, a state of Brazil.I'm an agronomist and I like to read books.This book isn't for doctors, but for the general public.
If you like to read comic books about doctors and patients, this a good choice.This book is also concise, easy to read and had a cheap price, when I bought it, here in Brazil.

This was an ok survey of the history of Medicine. I found that the author, (who is from great Britain), uses too many terms more familiar to other physicians. The average reader would probably not enjoy this book, as some of the language can get quite lofty, and encumbered by latin medical terms. If you want an easier read of the history of medicine this is not the book for you.