A Short History of Medicine / Edition 2

by Erwin H. Ackerknecht

Overview

Since it was first published in 1955, A Short History of Medicine has been hailed as the best available book of its kind: a concise and readable introduction to the history of medicine, written for students and professionals alike. This revised edition of Erwin H. Ackerknecht's classic volume is now available in paperback, making the book especially suitable for classroom use.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801827266
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	03/01/1982
Edition description:	revised edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.81(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Charles E. Rosenberg is the Ernest E. Monrad Professor in the Social Sciences and a professor of the history of science at Harvard University. He is the author of The Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866; The Care of Strangers: The Rise of America's Hospital System; and No Other Gods: On Science and American Social Thought.

Read an Excerpt

Humans have always become sick, suffered pain and disability, sought care and meaning; designated healers have always done their best with the time-bound intellectual tools at their disposal; one could only see what one was prepared to see. What professors professed was not the same as the everyday practice acted out at bedsides, whether in homes or, more recently, in hospitals. By reminding us of these stubborn realities, Ackerknecht offered a way of thinking about medicine that complicated but did not displace the standard history of Western medicine. It is this inclusive point of view that distinguished this Short History. While foregounding the intellectual and related clinical development of Western medicine, Ackerknecht sought, at the same time, to place it within a larger cultural, historical—and by implication, moral—framework.

—Charles E. Rosenberg, Harvard University, author of Our Present Complaint: American Medicine, Then and Now

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Foreword Charles E. Rosenberg xi

Preface, 1982 Edition xv

Preface to the First Edition xvii

Why Medical History? xix

1 Paleopathology and Paleomedicine 1

2 Primitive Medicine 7

3 Medicine of Ancient Civilizations 14

4 Ancient India and China 27

5 Greek Medicine: Physicians, Priests, Philosophers 36

6 Greek Medicine: Hippocratic Medicine 43

7 Greek Medicine: Alexandria and Rome 50

8 Medieval Medicine 62

9 Renaissance Medicine 74

10 Medicine in the Seventeenth Century 89

11 Medicine in the Eighteenth Century 102

12 The Clinical Schools of the First Half of the Nineteenth Century 115

13 The Basic Sciences during the Nineteenth Century 125

14 Clinical Medicine of the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century 135

15 Microbiology 139

16 Surgery and Gynecology in the Nineteenth Century 148

17 The New Specialism of the Nineteenth Century 155

18 Public Health and Professional Developments in the Nineteenth Century 168

19 Medicine in the United States Prior to 1900 174

20 Epilogue: Trends in Twentieth-Century Medicine 181

Concluding Essay: Erwin H. Ackerknecht, Social Medicine, and the History of Medicine Charles E. Rosenberg 193

Bibliographic Essay Lisa Haushofer 213

Index 235

Editorial Reviews

At first glance it seems inconceivable that a historian could, in a brief text, adequately capture the history of medicine from primitive times through early civilizations, classical antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and up to the mid-twentieth century. Edwin H. Ackerknecht accomplishes this task and he does it with verve, clarity, and style.

Nursing History Review

A concise, readable, and authoritative introduction to the history of medicine.

Annals of Internal Medicine

At first glance it seems inconceivable that a historian could, in a brief text, adequately capture the history of medicine from primitive times through early civilizations, classical antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and up to the mid-twentieth century. Edwin H. Ackerknecht accomplsihes this task and he does it with verve, clarity, and style.

Nursing History Review - Barbara Brodie

. . .A Short History of Medicine is a useful resource for those interested in studying Western medicine.
—Metapsychology

Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through researchers and faculty; professionals and practitioners.
—Choice

In the publication A Short History of Medicine by Erwin H. Ackernect, Revised and Expanded, the author gives a relatively concise, but demanding exploration and examination of the background of medicine. . . The potential lifesaving and life-enhanching information regarding this vital concern is highly recommended for the enlightenment and the education of the reader.
—M.G. Paregian

Both as an account of the past and as an object of study, then, A Short History of Medicine is a book with which it is well worth engaging.
—British Journal for the History of Science

. . . the combination of his guide to Western medical developments, Rosenberg’s foreword and essay and Haushofer’s bibliographical essay, should ensure that Ackerknecht’s A Short History of Medicine continues to warrant a place on our reading lists, especially for those courses directed at medical students.
—Social History of Medicine

...concise and engaging...
—William Cayley Jr, Family Medicine

A concise, readable, and authoritative introduction to the history of medicine.
—Annals of Internal Medicine

At first glance it seems inconceivable that a historian could, in a brief text, adequately capture the history of medicine from primitive times through early civilizations, classical antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and up to the mid-twentieth century. Edwin H. Ackerknecht accomplishes this task and he does it with verve, clarity, and style.
—Nursing History Review

This History fills a real gap. The author has succeeded in presenting the history of medicine in a well-balanced way that makes fascinating reading. In all this is a well-rounded book which [should be] in every medical student's hands.
—Bulletin of the History of Medicine

From the Publisher

Both as an account of the past and as an object of study, then, A Short History of Medicine is a book with which it is well worth engaging.

British Journal for the History of Science

...concise and engaging...

Family Medicine - William Cayley Jr

This History fills a real gap. The author has succeeded in presenting the history of medicine in a well-balanced way that makes fascinating reading. In all this is a well-rounded book which [should be] in every medical student's hands.

Bulletin of the History of Medicine

Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through researchers and faculty; professionals and practitioners.

Choice

. . . the combination of his guide to Western medical developments, Rosenberg’s foreword and essay and Haushofer’s bibliographical essay, should ensure that Ackerknecht’s A Short History of Medicine continues to warrant a place on our reading lists, especially for those courses directed at medical students.

Social History of Medicine

. . .A Short History of Medicine is a useful resource for those interested in studying Western medicine.

Metapsychology

In the publication A Short History of Medicine by Erwin H. Ackernect, Revised and Expanded, the author gives a relatively concise, but demanding exploration and examination of the background of medicine. . . The potential lifesaving and life-enhanching information regarding this vital concern is highly recommended for the enlightenment and the education of the reader.

M.G. Paregian