The Cambridge Illustrated History of Medicine (Cambridge Illustrated Histories) [Paperback]

Roy Porter (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521002524 | ISBN-13: 978-0521002523 | Publication Date: July 30, 2001

Against the backdrop of unprecedented concern for the future of health care, The Cambridge Illustrated 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 lavishly illustrated 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 Illustrated History of Medicine is for readers wanting a lively and informative introduction to medical history. Roy Porter is professor of the social history of medicine at the Wellcome Insitute for the History of Science. He has written or edited numerous books about the history of medicine, including Western Medical Tradition (with L. Conrad, Cambridge, 1995), Drugs and Narcotics in History (with M. Teich, Cambridge, 1995), The Greatest Benefit to Mankind (Norton, 1999), and The Creation of the Modern World (Norton, 2000).

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

YA. Arranged thematically, this resource traces the evolution of the constantly changing realm of medicine and makes parallels with other events of the era. Each essay is written by an expert in the field. While there are several references to the bubonic plague (although only under "plague, bubonic" and "black death"), there are no entries for medicine during the Civil War. The Ebola virus is mentioned in the chronology, but it is not discussed within the text. While the concentration is on traditional Western medicine, some alternative forms such as homeopathy and acupuncture are included. Boxed inserts cover related events or diseases. The numerous illustrations and photographs are precisely captioned. In addition to the page citation, the helpful glossary gives the birth and death dates for medical personalities, as well as their nationality and medical specialty.?Claudia Moore, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"This distinguished book should be shared with students and colleagues and just enjoyed by its owner." The New England Journal of Medicine

"This book provides a comprehensive, authoritative presentation of the development of Western medical practice to the present day...The book is filled with vivid illustrations...The information presented is accurate, and the scope of the book is vast...I recommend this volume highly." SB&F

"We have come to expect from the Cambridge Illustrated History series informative and elegantly produced volumes, and this one on the history of medicine lives up to expectations....What particularly distinguishes this book are its illustrations and their captions. They are exceedingly well chosen and reproduced....a handsome volume...." Isis

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (July 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521002524
• ISBN-13: 978-0521002523
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #443,358 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written, lavishly illustrated, January 8, 2001

By 

A. Woodley "Patroness, Janeites, the Austen list" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cambridge Illustrated History of Medicine (Cambridge Illustrated Histories) (Hardcover)

I decided, given the variation in literature available, to read and review three books on medicine by Roy Porter at once. These are this one, the Cambridge Illustrated History: Medicine the other two are - "The Greatest Benefit of Mankind" and "Gout, the Patrician Maladay". I thought this was the best approach as people might be looking for a reference work to buy and trying to toss up between which one to get and what the advantages and disadvantages of buying one of these would be. Well for the first two of these. I read "Gout" because it offered a view of Porter's work in a more focussed subject in contrast with the two other generalised works. So if you are interested in comparing and contrasting you can read the other reviews on my review page. I've offered some comments on the other two works here in this review though.

The Cambridge History is divided into ten chapters, four of which have been written by Porter himself (he is editor of the whole book). Each chapter is independent of the others and follows one quite broad topic. This means you might read over the same historical period more than one chapter. The subjects include such as 'History of Disease', 'Rise in Medicine', 'Hospitals'

The great advantage of this book over the other two mentioned is that it has been liberally illustrated in both colour and black white pictures. They intersperse the text all the way through - and this sort of socio-medical history very much benefits from this sort of treatment. It provides both support for the text and makes for easy reading. The text itself isn't too bogged down in technically yawnable detail, Porter himself is pretty readable, but at the same time it is not a light-weight work written simply to gratify a tabloid market. Naturally, because of constraints of size, it is neither heavy on statistics, nor is their room to fully develop some of the historical points which are made. As a matter of interest I compared some subjects in this work with Porter's other book which he wrote a year later "The Greatest Benefit to Mankind". And in detail the 'The Greatest Benefit.." certainly wins out - but it is twice as long as this one so simply has more room to supply detail.

What I enjoyed most about this book is that it is; 1 - Lavishly illustrated and in colour.I'm not sure if a picture does indeed paint a thousand words, but it certainly provides a ready visual cue. 2 - I loved the inserts where subjects were dealt with in side-bars of short separate stories. These included things like 'Transience of Consumptive Beautry", "Nursing becomes professional", Black Death and various biographies.

It all goes to make it a better browsable read than the Greatest Benefit to Mankind - it is probably better for younger ages too who will enjoy the illustrations and the interspersing articles. It is difficult to make a decision, if you are choosing to buy one (Greatest Benefit vs Cambridge Illustrated) but I notice in soft cover both are quite reasonably priced. I think the illustrations win it for me in the end.

48 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellente review of the "History of Medicine", May 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cambridge Illustrated History of Medicine (Cambridge Illustrated Histories) (Hardcover)

As a general practitioner I always wanted a single,low-priced book on this subject, easy to read, complete, critical and very accurate. And I am not forgetting about the quality of the paper and the printing!! I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in knowing more about the birth, development, breakthroughs and actual state of the healing sciences.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Overview, Broad Spectrum, April 27, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cambridge Illustrated History of Medicine (Cambridge Illustrated Histories) (Hardcover)

I think this book offers a good overview of medical history with a fairly broad reach. It covers many different cultures and famous physicians with what seems to be a good historical account. It is fairly straightfoward reading that doesn't have much of the little historical tidbits that make some history of medicine texts really interesting. It read more like a good textbook and is a good starting place in your learning of medical history.