Medicine and Western Civilization

by Steven Marcus (Editor)

This fabulous anthology is sure to be a core text for history of medicine and social science classes in colleges across the country. In order to demonstrate how medical research has influenced Western cultural perspectives, the editors have collected original works from 61 different authors around nine major themes (among them "Anatomy and Destiny," "Psyche and Soma," and "The Construction of Pain, Suffering, and Death"). The authors range from Aristotle, the Bible, and Louis Pasteur, to Masters and Johnson, Ernest Hemingway, and Simone de Beauvoir. The primary sources selected to illustrate the themes are well chosen and contrast with each other nicely. However, the brief background material for the selections center around the authors and offer little or no discussion about the selections' relevance to the topics at hand. This book would be best read in a class or group where the texts' meaning in relation to each other can be discussed, but the book can stand alone if the reader is prepared to do some critical thinking.

Genres: Medicine, History

Paperback

First published August 1, 1995

About the author

Steven Marcus is George Delacorte Professor Emeritus in the Humanities at Columbia University and was Dean of Columbia University from 1993-1995. He is also the author of Dickens: From Pickwick to Dombey and Freud and the Culture of Psychoanalysis and has edited, together with Lionel Trilling, the one-volume edition of Ernest Jones's The Life and Works of Sigmund Freud. His essays and reviews have appeared in many periodicals, including Commentary, The New York Review of Books, Partisan Review, and The New Statesman.

Reviews

[Lachlan · Rating 5 out of 5]

incredible collection of medical history primary sources covering a series of general themes (i.e. human experimentation; the idea of a 'healer'; purity and contamination) ranging from biblical/pre-history accounts of how to interpret urine properly to contemporary stuff like a transcription of the congressional hearings about the Tuskegee syphilis experiment


relatively accessible, could not recommend this more to any reader with an interest in history of medicine. not something you'd want to read front to back, but not just a textbook either

[The Sleepy Nightowl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collections of essays and excerpts about the development of the science of medicine in the West. Broad in the topics dealt with, a thorough course through history is chartered. Each excerpt has a brief introduction followed by the source text that illuminates one important step in the development of medicine. Sometimes more depth and a wider range and variety of sources would have been appreciated but overall a very interesting read.

[Elizabeth Suggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the stories are ok, but since are captivating. And all are informative.

[Soni · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for a class on Medicine and learning about patient Bedside Manner. It was very interesting and I have referenced it to my brother-in-law while he was in Medical School. I think it went with the class I was taking but if you are in the Medical Field, I would read it.