Bodies Politic: Disease, Death and Doctors in Britain, 1650-1900

by Roy Porter

Bodies Politic takes a critical look at representations of the body in death, disease, and health, as well as at images of the healing arts in Britain from the mid-seventeenth to the twentieth century. Arguing that great symbolic weight was attached to contrasting conceptions of the healthy and diseased body, Roy Porter shows that such ideas were mapped onto antithetical notions of the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly. With these images in mind, he explores aspects of being ill alongside the practice of medicine, paying special attention to self-presentations by physicians, surgeons, and quacks and the changes in practitioners’ public identities over time. Packed with amusing anecdotes and unusual illustrations, this book is a magisterial account of the meanings of disease, doctoring, and the “body politic.”
 
“A wonderful book. . . . There are 137 illustrations . . . and every one is an exultation in the fleshly horrors of the era.”—Guardian (UK)
 
“Roy Porter is one of the world’s best historical writers: his prose is pithy, witty, vivid, engaging, and perfectly paced. He has a keen eye for evidence and can wrest conclusions with analytical rigour and imaginative subtlety. He masters fact and theory with equal ease and wields both lightly and powerfully.”—Independent

Genres: History Of Science, History, Science, Nonfiction

328 pages, Paperback

First published July 5, 2001

About the author

Roy's books cover several fields: the history of geology, London, 18th-Century British ideas and society, medicine, madness, quackery, patients and practitioners, literature and art, on which subjects (and others) he published over 200 books are articles.

List of works can be found @ wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Porter )

Reviews

[Olivia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will probably be slated for saying this, but Roy Porter really is the best writer of the History of Medicine. He is witty and has a way of sharing information in such a variety of ways to people of all different levels. The difference in writing style between his academic essays and popular history books is subtle but effective. Books like this are as easy to soak up in bed as a novel and far more fulfilling. Although his subject matter is almost always fairy morbid and gruesome he does not revel in it. He has an ability - or raw talent - for showing you exactly what it would be like (and how it would feel) to suffer from or treat illnesses from the past in a sympathetic but un-nauseated way. Yes, I am a huge fan of his and everything that he writes.

[Susie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*