The Greatest Benefit to Mankind : A Medical History of Humanity

ISBN-13: 9780006374541 / Angielski / Miękka / 1999 / 848 str.

Roy Porter

Opis

Set to become the standard work on the history of medicine, this book is also a treasure trove of historical surprises. Roy Porter shows how lemons did as much as Nelson to defeat Napoleon and how African slaves became immune to malaria.

Recenzje

'A superb book - fluent, lucid, scary and even funny...essential reading.' Sunday Times

'Magnificently erudite and compellingly humane.' New Statesman (Books of the Year)

'Yet another compulsively readable, astonishingly encyclopaedic book from Roy Porter...his best to date: an epic, one-volume narrative history of man's struggle with the infirmities of his body, from Aesculapius to AIDS.' Simon Schama

'Whether you are interested in the advent of the stethoscope, the history of yellow fever, the bubonic plague or, closer to home, coronary heart disease, the feminist influence on medicine, drug abuse, childbearing or cancer, this book provides the historic background to these and other medical questions..."The Greatest Benefit to Mankind" is a first-class introduction to medical history. Like a well constructed broadsheet leader, it excites thought and discussion, as well as providing many answers.' The Times

'Hypochondriac heaven - a gripping, scholarly, fact-packed, must-have book.' Daily Mail

'A monumental work... magnificent.' Independent on Sunday

O autorze

Roy Porter was Professor of the Social History of Medicine at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Science, and a highly respected and prolific author. He died in March 2002 at the age of 55.