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The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity (Paperback)

by Roy Porter (Author) "THESE ARE STRANGE TIMES, when we are healthier than ever but more anxious about our health ..." (more)

4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Product details

Paperback: 848 pages
Publisher: Fontana Press; New Ed edition (1 Feb 1999)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0006374549
ISBN-13: 978-0006374541
Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 14.4 x 5.2 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 24,135 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category:
#13 in Books > History > Other Historical Subjects > History of Medicine

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Samuel Johnson once called the medical profession "the greatest benefit to mankind." In the 20th century, the quality of that benefit has improved more and more rapidly than at any other comparable time in history. With all the capabilities of modern medicine's practitioners, however, we as a people are as worried about our health as ever.

Roy Porter, a social historian of medicine at London's Wellcome Institute, has written a dauntingly thick history of how medical thinking and practice has risen to the challenges of disease through the centuries. But delve into its pages and you'll find one marvellous piece of history after another. The obvious highlights are touched upon--Hippocrates introduces his oath, Pasteur homogenises, Jonas Salk produces the polio vaccine and so on--but there's also Dr. Francis Willis' curing of the madness of King George III, W.T.G. Morton's aggressive use of ether in surgery and research on digestion conducted using a man with a stomach fistula (if you don't know what that means, you may not want to know). Porter is straightforward about his deliberate focus on Western medical traditions, citing their predominant influence on global medicine, and with The Greatest Benefit to Mankind he has produced a volume worthy of that tradition's legacy. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

'A monumental work! magnificent.' KENAN MALIK, Independent on Sunday 'Only the unique artistry of Roy Porter could have created this panoramic and perfectly magnificent intellectual history of medicine. It makes no difference whether one reads it for its wisdom, insight, inimitable perspective, or simply for its plenitude of information -- this is the book that delivers it all.' SHERWIN B. NULAND

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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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Average Customer Review

4.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dual purpose book well written interesting read for anyone., 14 Jul 2004

By	manic_w - See all my reviews

I have had this book since it was first published and it has been worth it's weight (considerable) in gold. I was nursing at the time so obviously had an interest in the medical side. However, this is an excellant history book and of interest to those who like to find out odd facts or the roots of colloquialisms.
It is so interesting it hooks you into actually reading all of it. I have, so has my daughter and my best friend (also a nurse).
However, it is factually correct and written well enough to be deemed a suitable source for academic studies. So after reading it for pleasure I found it was a recommended course book for a module in my Health & Social Policy degree. My friend has also delved into it again for her Nursing Studies degree.
This is a book that you keep and visit now and again, not like other academic texts that you cannot wait to sell on the Marketplace.

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34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great all round history of medicine, 21 Nov 2000

By	"anonymouspootle" - See all my reviews

This book balances the social history with the anecdotes that bring the history of medicine alive It's incredibly dense and stands a lot of rereading an excellent history of medicine with fascinating looks at some often neglected areas such as Jewish and Arabic medicine of the Middle Ages

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History of medicine for the general reader, 22 April 2009

By	S. Yarwood (London UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: Medical History of Humanity (Paperback)

This book encompasses the broad sweep of the history of medical discovery and medical care from the earliest times and illuminates the story with accounts of scientific method explained in layman's terms and illustrated with anecdotes that range from the revelatory to the highly entertaining. Quite a heavy tome but unputdownable none the less.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read
Very well written compression of the entire medical history into one volume. As a medical student I found it fascinating, however can come across as a little listy at times....

Published 15 days ago by M. Jenkins

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