A Short History of Medicine

by Steve Parker

Immerse yourself in the history of medicine - a colourful story of skill, serendipity, trial and error, moments of genius, and dogged determination. From traditional chinese medicine to today's sophisticated gene therapies and robotic surgery, A Short History of Medicine combines riveting storytelling and beautiful images, historical accounts and lucid explanations, to illuminate the story of medicine through time. Witness early, bloody, anaesthetic-free operations; see the first crude surgical instruments; trace the mapping of the circulatory system; follow the painstaking detective work that led to the decoding of the human genome; and understand the role that potions, cures, therapies, herbal medicines, and drugs have played in the human quest to tame and conquer disease, injury, and death. A Short History of Medicine is an engrossing illustrated history and tale of drama and discovery that celebrates the milestones of medical history across generations and cultures.

Genres: Medicine, Nonfiction, Science, History, Medical, Health, Health Care

400 pages, Paperback

First published May 2, 2019

About the author

Steve Parker is a British science writer of children's and adult's books. He has written more than 300 titles and contributed to or edited another 150.

Born in Warrington, Lancashire, in 1952, Parker attended Strodes College, Egham and gained a BSc First Class Honours in Zoology at the University of Wales, Bangor. He worked as an exhibition scientist at the Natural History Museum, and as editor and managing editor at Dorling Kindersley Publishers, and commissioning editor at medical periodical GP, before becoming a freelance writer in the late 1980s. He is a Senior Scientific Fellow of the Zoological Society of London. Parker is based in Suffolk with his family.

Parker's writing career began with 10 early titles in Dorling Kindersley's multi-award-winning Eyewitness series, from the late 1980s to the late 1990s. He has since worked for more than a dozen children's book publishers and been shortlisted for, among others, the Rhone-Poulenc Science Book Prize, Times Educational Information Book of the Year, and Blue Peter Book Award.

Reviews

[Kinan Diraneyya · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not a book about the history of medicine. It is a collection of biographies, each concerning a historical medical figure. Popular science books written this way tend to focus way more on personal accomplishments and acknowledging credit than they do on general knowledge. They also tend to be longer than their counterparts that summarize subjects without concerning themselves with names.

The book is made into four parts. The first part, Beliefs and Traditions, is of prehistoric medicine. Even this part follows the same biographical approach despite discussing barely recorded events. Beliefs and Traditions goes for ~100 pages, stopping at each culture to talk about their gods, shamans, spiritual practices, and how they used herbs. Then talk about a couple of their famous figures who were either real people or folk legends. To me, this part was a big waste of paper and ink and could have been summarized in 90% fewer words.

The narration improves from the second part onwards. The few pages going about the beginning of anatomical research are most enjoyable, and many of the other subjects, although picked and sorted randomly, provide a good understanding of the evolution of medicine. But unfortunately, they aren't remotely as informative as they are long, again, because of the biographical nature of the narration.

DK books contain all kinds of pictures and graphs, which is a great thing to have in a book. However, most of the time, they go something like this: This is a flask that was used by ancient Egyptians to blend liquids. Yeah, no shit. There also plenty of quotes from famous doctors, which are so big that you will confuse them for titles most of the time. These quotes get really silly at some point. It is as if the editor requested them, but the writer had no idea how to oblige. Take this one for example: You never saw a very busy person who was unhappy, Dorothy Dix. What the hell does that even mean?

One the other hand, the book shows a few fascinating anatomical illustrations, mostly works from De Humani and by the famous artist Da Vinci. There are also a few timelines of disease progressions, which, although drop unannounced, serve their purpose well by explaining the history of these diseases.

A Short History of Medicine is among the least popular science books that I would recommend. You should only read it if you were particularly interested in the topic and happened to have a lot of free time on your hand. And even then, you will probably find better books to tell you the story.

[Noah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Low key shit

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little dry and hard to slog through at first, especially the part about ancient medicines. The end got better as the book discusses all the modern innovations we now take for granted, such as anesthesia, medical scans, immunizations, medical transportation, fertility treatments…I’m glad I read it but hoping to read something lighter and more page-turning now.

[Vasi Opari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very fun overview of many things throughout history. I wish some of the facts or events they mentioned on the sides of pages went into more depth.

[Luna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice, brief look into different ways medicine was used in different parts of the world and how it developed

[William Schram · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Short History of Medicine is written by Steve Parker. It was published previously under the title of Kill or Cure. Medicine itself has a fascinating history that extends far back into the times before writing. Given that medicine has such a storied past, it is surprising that you can pack all of this information into so few pages. The book is filled with images and little snippets of biography to show the lives of famous medical practitioners.

A Short History of Medicine is set up chronologically. It starts in the distant mists of prehistory and lists the advancements in those time periods. Not surprisingly, the only things of note are advances in pharmaceuticals and Trepanation. Eventually, illness was considered to be due to the whims of gods and goddesses and prayer was thought to be effective. Some extant medical texts discuss magical spells that can be used. This is mainly from Ancient Egypt. As such it also covers the process of mummification, which is really interesting in and of itself.

The book then moves on to Ancient Greece, where they had the idea of the four humors. This simple idea set medicine back in Europe for many centuries. Eventually, William Harvey set forth the idea of the circulation of blood throughout the body and people were finally allowed to dissect cadavers. With those small changes, the concept of medicine reached a sort of tipping point. Further advances in medicine had to wait for the development of microscopes and the Germ Theory of Disease.

So in short, for a long time, the pioneers of medicine were overturning old paradigms and developing new practices. Sometimes luck comes into play as well such as when the first antibiotic was discovered. Most of the big changes occurred in more modern times. Now we can have robots and Artificial Intelligence do a lot of work. For example, having IBM’s Watson diagnose patients is the use of AI.

All in all, the book is really informative and well done. As I might have mentioned, there are a lot of pictures and quotes attributed to a lot of famous people.

[Anand · Rating 4 out of 5]

We are so privileged to be born in an era to experience such sophisticated medical care available to us. This book delves into how medicine has evolved since prehistoric times, from illness being considered to be a wrath of gods, or due to evil spirits, to be thought due to imbalance in the body humours to a paradigm shift in the past two centuries with the invention of microscope leading to discoveries ranging from microbes, cancer cells, antibiotics, all of which have completely revolutionised medical care and how patient care is delivered today.

The significant take away from this book for me would be that an idea can exist and believed to be true for centuries without being questioned and it is upon us to validate each and every belief, how much ever strong it may seem, as it might completely change the perspective of how things are visualised and can bring remarkable change and progress to humanity.

[Andrew Cook · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a useful primer for ~4000 years of human medical history and for learning about common themes in medicine that are relevant today. I appreciated this book for its range of content (mainly, for highlighting impactful historical individuals who were not European men) and for showing how each discovery and theory led to the next. Plus the pictures, infographics, and timelines were well made and broke up the sometimes tedious reading. However, it only gets 3/5 stars because it can get repetitive at times and frequently spends too much time on scientists’ biographies when it could’ve simply focused on what they did. Overall, I leave this book have a greater respect for the knowledge and technology that makes modern medicine so awesome.

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Currently going through this. The first section was somewhat interesting as it discusses different historical methodologies of treating illnesses across the globe. However, the title isn't sufficient in my opinion. It should be titled "A Cursory History of Medicine" because it has yet to go beyond superficial content. I had hoped for an explanation of how ancient medicines may have worked in biological sense. I guess I shouldn't be too disappointed given the title, it is fairly honest.

However, if you've never studied medicine, medical history, etc. this could be very interesting. Very easy read.

[Nolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was perfect for my Global History of Medicine class. We met once a week so this book was a great way to learn about the material before class without having to spend hours reading. The short sections are very informative and give you just enough to make you want to learn more! There’s lots of pictures that definitely help break up any large blocks. I would recommend even if you’re not in a college class. It’s a great read for anyone!

[Andreea Borz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although it started promising, unfortunately this is not a book about the history of medicine, but about a few of the people that contributed to some of the medical progresses which are described in this book. It lacks seriously when it comes about the actual facts of the medical practices throughout the history. Also, there is very little information about the history of medical institutes. Bottom line, if you really want to find out the history of medicine, you should read another book.

[Bill Ryerson · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Short" is the operative word here. While I know it isn't exhaustive, there is still so much in this book. It's almost too much. Outside of the usual suspects, the author should be commended for tying into cultures and practices beyond Western medicine for this book. It was really eye-opening, and it was great to see it presented as a side-by-side with the development of Western medicine, as opposed to being an afterthought.

[Will Norton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is more of a history of various portions of medicine like X-Rays or antibiotics. It therefore doesn't read like a true history book and requires a lot of background in medicine. That is a lot of ground so the history lesson tend to be only 2 to 3 pages on each topic. I did find it interesting given my college education in medicine.

[Bianca Borea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the way it was structured and the fact that it reminded me of what I thought I had forgotten. Plus, it brought me new information.

However, like the title says, it is short and the glossary is even shorter so someone with no medical background has to google a lot in order to understand the medical terms and abbreviations used in the book.

[Giangy Giang · Rating 5 out of 5]

An encyclopaedia about medicine through time! This book should be a must read for everyone since it is necessary that we acknowledge all the great figures and all the journeys they have been through to get us where we are.

[Marena Galluccio · Rating 4 out of 5]

While at times repetitive, A SHORT HISTORY OF MEDICINE is a solid foundation to dive into. However, I do wish there was more focus on women who work and made discoveries within the field as well as those who live in non-European countries or the US.

[Mario Garcia Romo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic overview of the history of medicine, told in a curious and engaging way, filled with stories about some of the most important contributors to medical progress over the last millennia. I loved reading it!

[Tony Lam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining

[Andra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Apart from some anatomical illustrations done by De Humani and Da Vinci there is nothing interesting...

[Alexandru Nan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Păstă medie!

[Skiboltskie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant book. Covered everything from antiquity to the modern ages and everything in between. However, don't read if you are a hypochondriac or have Munchausen syndrome by proxy.

[Study With Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could be presented in a more interesting way but an a-okay way to revisit the GCSE History course although definitely not the most efficient way of revision.

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting facts mixed with elements of story telling and lots of pictures.

[Victoria Bohanan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting facts about the evolvement of medicine. A little weird how the book was formatted, but nonetheless enjoyed learning about the different ways medicine has evolved.

[Puppzee Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book to learn about the medical history. It’s very interesting on how we upgraded our tools and methods.

[Malcolm Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

what it says on the tin