The Western Medical Tradition
The Western Medical Tradition
Michael Neve , Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, University College London
Vivian Nutton , Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, University College London
Roy Porter , Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, University College London
Andrew Wear , Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, University College London
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The influence of Greek medical practices dating back to the fifth century B.C. has had an immeasurable impact on the development of medicine in the West over the subsequent centuries. This text is designed to cover the history of Western medicine from Classical Antiquity to 1800. As one guiding thread it takes the system of medical ideas that, in large part, went back to the Greeks of the fifth century B.C., and played a major role in the understanding and treatment of health and disease. The influence of Greek medicine spread from the Aegean basin to the rest of the Mediterranean region, to Europe, and then to European settlements overseas. By the nineteenth century, however, this tradition no longer carried the same force or occupied so central a position within medicine. This book charts the influence of this tradition through twenty centuries, examining it in its social and historical context. It is essential reading as a new synthesis for all students of the history of medicine.
- A new synthesis, by members of the academic staff of the world's leading centre for the history of medicine
- No similar book available of this scope
- The very latest historical scholarship
Reviews & endorsements
"The Western Medical Tradition is a beautifully produced book....It should not, however, be regarded as a book only for doctors and medical students, for it would sit just as easily on the shelves of anyone with an interest in health and disease." The Lancet
"...probably the best and most authoritative social history of Western medicine available in one volume." Gary B. Ferngren, New England Journal of Medicine
"...the lively presentation, a style that rescues each subject from cliche while it places the history of medicine in a wide social context, one that includes alternative healing, the complicated relationship between religion and medicine, the development of hospitals and medical schools, and an account of how doctors tracked the authentic but hidden world of disease as biological pathology. I highly recommend this book for all physician-philosophers and medical libraries." Alan T. Marty, Jounal of the American Medical Association
"...authoritative, up-to-date, and broad-minded survey....The Western Medical Tradition will no doubt leave its mark on the study and on the teaching of the discipline at universities." Joseph Shatzmiller, Journal of the History of Medicine
"Far more than a historical treatise, this is an interpretive text to broaden the horizons of any serious student of the history of medicine." G. Eknoyan, Choice
"The emphasis on detail may make this text a difficlut one for undergraduates but extremely rewarding..." Alexandra M. Lord, Historical Studies in the Physical Biological Sciences
"...a treasure..." The Historian
Product details
August 1995Paperback
9780521475648
574 pages
244 × 170 × 33 mm
0.968kg
71 b/w illus. 4 maps 20 tables
Available
Table of Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. Medicine in the Greek world, 800–50 BC
- 2. Roman medicine, 250 BC–200 AD
- 3. Medicine in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages
- 4. The Arab-Islamic medical tradition
- 5. Medicine in medieval western Europe, 1000–1500
- 6. Medicine in early modern Europe, 1500–1700
- 7. The eighteenth century
- 8. Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index.
