Description

Book Synopsis
Mankind''s battle to stay alive is the greatest of all subjects. This brief, witty and unusual book by Britain''s greatest medical historian compresses into a tiny span a lifetime spent thinking about millennia of human ingenuity in the quest to cheat death. Each chapter sums up one of these battlefields (surgery, doctors, disease, hospitals, laboratories and the human body) in a way that is both frightening and elating. Startlingly illustrated, A SHORT HISTORY OF MEDICINE is the ideal presentfor anyone who is keenly aware of their own mortality and wants to do something about it. It is also a wonderful memorial to one of Penguin''s greatest historians.

Trade Review
'Nobody will be able to put down this short history of medicine... without counting their blessings. Never have I read a book which made me so glad not to have been born before the mid-20th century.' Daily Mail

Table of Contents
Disease; doctors; the body; the laboratory; therapies; surgery; the hospital; medicine in modern society.

Blood and Guts

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    A Paperback / softback by Roy Porter

    £10.44

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    RRP £10.99 – you save £0.55 (5%)

    Order before 4pm today for delivery by Fri 11 Sep 2026.

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      Book details

      Publisher Penguin Random House Group
      Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
      Published 26 June 2003
      ISBN-13 9780141010649
      978-0141010649
      ISBN-10 0141010649
      Also in:
      History of medicine Science & Nature History of science Popular science

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      Mankind''s battle to stay alive is the greatest of all subjects. This brief, witty and unusual book by Britain''s greatest medical historian compresses into a tiny span a lifetime spent thinking about millennia of human ingenuity in the quest to cheat death. Each chapter sums up one of these battlefields (surgery, doctors, disease, hospitals, laboratories and the human body) in a way that is both frightening and elating. Startlingly illustrated, A SHORT HISTORY OF MEDICINE is the ideal presentfor anyone who is keenly aware of their own mortality and wants to do something about it. It is also a wonderful memorial to one of Penguin''s greatest historians.

      Trade Review
      'Nobody will be able to put down this short history of medicine... without counting their blessings. Never have I read a book which made me so glad not to have been born before the mid-20th century.' Daily Mail

      Table of Contents
      Disease; doctors; the body; the laboratory; therapies; surgery; the hospital; medicine in modern society.

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