Neurasthenia, meaning nerve weakness, was 'invented' in the United States as a disorder of modernity, caused by the fast pace of urban life. Soon after, from the early 1880s onwards, this modern disease crossed the Atlantic. Neurasthenia became much less 'popular' in Britain or the Netherlands than in Germany. Neurasthenia's heyday continued into the first decade of the twentieth century. The label referred to conditions similar to those currently labelled as chronic fatigue syndrome. Why this rise and fall of neurasthenia, and why these differences in popularity? This book, which emerged out...

In the early modern centuries a body of popularized medical writings appeared, telling ordinary people how they could best take care of their own health. Often written be doctors, such books gave simple advice for home treatments, while commonly warning of the dangers of magic, quackery, old wive's tales and faith-healing. The Popularization of Medicine explores the rise of this form of people's medicine, from the early days of printing to the Victorian age, focusing on the different experiences of Britain, the Continent and North America.

'Roy Porter, a historian of formidable range, turns to urban history in this marvellously lucid, informative and passionate book... Porter's facts are always at the service of the narrative, which has a finely maintained momentum, balancing statistics with the words of historians, diarists and novelists, poets and churchmen: Pepys, Boswell, Fielding, Walpole, Blake, Mayhew, Wells, Woolf, Spark, ... a timely and brilliant book.' CLAIRE TOMALIN, EVENING STANDARD 'A vivid celebration of the city, but also an elegy for its decline, bubbling with statistics and anecdote, from Boadicea to...

The culmination of a lifelong interest in the metaphysics of the body by the premier social historian of medicine. How did we come to a modern understanding of our bodies and souls? What were the breakthroughs that allowed human beings to see themselves in a new light?

For generations the focus for those wishing to understand the roots of the modern world has been France on the eve of the Revolution. Porter certainly acknowledges France's importance, but makes a case for considering Britain the true home of modernity - a country driven by an exuberance, diversity and power of invention comparable only to 20th-century America.

Discusses about millennia of human ingenuity in the quest to cheat death. This book features various chapters that sum up one of these battlefields such as surgery, doctors, disease, hospitals, laboratories and the human body. It is suitable for those who are keenly aware of their own mortality and wants to do something about it.

Roy Porter's historical overview of madness reveals the radically different perceptions of madness and approaches to its treatment, from antiquity to the beginning of the 21st century. Roy Porter's historical overview of madness reveals the radically different perceptions of madness and approaches to its treatment, from antiquity to the beginning of the 21st century.

The 18th-century Enlightenment was one of the most exciting and significant currents of European culture. Battling against tyranny, ignorance, and superstition, it formulated the ideals of thought, religion, and expression, the value of science, and the pursuit of progress. Enlightenment thinkers undermined the

Dějiny medicíny Roye Portera jsou mimořádným dílem, jež shrnuje a hodnotí celý dosavadní vývoj praktické medicíny i lékařské vědy. Autor se snaží zachytit stále rychlejší a dynamičtější pokrok medicíny, uvědomuje si však i její současné limity a nově vznikající problémy – například měnící se podobu vztahu mezi lékařem a pacientem, hrozbu nových chorob či dosud pouze velmi omezené úspěchy v boji s onkologickými onemocněními. Vývoj medicíny a lékařské vědy představuje na širším náboženském, vědeckém, ekonomickém, sociálním i...

This Dictionary is part of the Oxford Reference Collection using sustainable print-on-demand technology to make the acclaimed backlist of the Oxford Reference programme perennially available in hardback format.

The original words announcing great scientific discoveries, from the first 'Eureka ' to the cloning of Dolly the sheep, can all be found in this fascinating addition to the world-famous 'Oxford Quotations' range. An essential reference tool, put together over 15 years with the assistance of a distinguished team of specialist advisers, it includes full author...