The Greatest Benefit to Mankind

Fülszöveg

science / medicine "To combine enormous knowledge with a delightful style and a highly idiosyncratic point of view is Roy Porter's special gift, and it mdkes [this] book ... alive and fascinating and provocative on every page." -Olivér Sacks, M.D. Hailed as "a remarkable achievement" (Boston Sunday Globe) and as "a triumph: simultaneously entertaining and instructive, witty and thought-provoking ... a splendid and thoroughly engrossing book" (Los Angeles Times), Roy Porter's charting of the history of medicine affords us an opportunity as never before to assess its culture and science and its costs and benefits to mankind. Offering up a treasure trove of historical surprises along the way, this book "has instantly become the standard single-volume work in its field" (The Lancet). "Compulsively readable, astonishingly encyclopedic. . . . An epic, one-volume narrative history of man's struggle with the infirmities of his body, from Aesculapius to AIDS. The author's perceptiveness is,... Tovább

Fülszöveg

science / medicine "To combine enormous knowledge with a delightful style and a highly idiosyncratic point of view is Roy Porter's special gift, and it mdkes [this] book ... alive and fascinating and provocative on every page." -Olivér Sacks, M.D. Hailed as "a remarkable achievement" (Boston Sunday Globe) and as "a triumph: simultaneously entertaining and instructive, witty and thought-provoking ... a splendid and thoroughly engrossing book" (Los Angeles Times), Roy Porter's charting of the history of medicine affords us an opportunity as never before to assess its culture and science and its costs and benefits to mankind. Offering up a treasure trove of historical surprises along the way, this book "has instantly become the standard single-volume work in its field" (The Lancet). "Compulsively readable, astonishingly encyclopedic. . . . An epic, one-volume narrative history of man's struggle with the infirmities of his body, from Aesculapius to AIDS. The author's perceptiveness is, as usual, scalpel-sharp; his manner genially bedside; his erudition invigorating." -Simon Schama "A prodigious history of medicine from antiquity to today's controversies. . . . Crisply written, often entertaining." -Dávid A. Hollinger, front-page review, New York Times Book Review The late ROY PORTER was professor in the social history of medicine at the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College, London. His books include Blood and Guts and Flesh in the Age of Reason. A New York Times Notable Book of 1998 Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award Vissza