Medicine, Madness and Social History - by R Bivins & J Pickstone (Hardcover)

About the Book

Honoring and extending the work of historian Roy Porter, this volume offers lively, accessible and often topical chapters presenting orginal research on the social history of medicine, madness and the Enlightenment.

Book Synopsis

Written in honour of eminent historian Roy Porter by twenty of his colleagues and students, the collection renders cutting edge scholarship accessible. Historians from the three fields that Porter made his own - the histories of medicine, madness, and the Enlightenment - illustrate his influence while tackling major themes ranging from disability rights to the popularization of science. In their accounts, artisan gardeners jostle with anarchists, dentists, and hypnotists in a lively, and very Porterian, parade.

Review Quotes

'...Roberta Bivins and John Pickstone are to commended in bringing together the various contributors; and the latter are likewise to be praised for the thoughtful and appreciative essays. This is a fine volume and a fine Tribute.' - John Stewart, Social History of Medicine

'The editors and contributors also convey something of what it was about Porter's way of being a historian which touched, encouraged and in some cases inspired their lives and work. It makes for an attractive combination of the scholarly and the personal. There are eighteen essays, each short and making a point, and the result is a very readable, accessible collection.' - Roger Smith, British Journal for the History of Science

'Within these contributions, there is much that is both informative and thought-provoking. This is exactly what one would expect from disciples of Roy Porter, a man who would never allow himself to be tied down by historical, spatial, cultural or intellectual categories.' - Leonard Smith, History of Psychiatry

'...this collection does a tremendously good job of summoning an image of Porter's interests and methods in the social history of medicine and their impact.' - Andrew Hull, Medical History

'[With a] strong commitment to delimiting the type of historian that Porter was and was not ... [the essays show] how engagement with Porter's style of social history can and will continue to produce stimulating and "enlightening" work.'

- Karen Buckle, Journal of Contemporary History

About the Author

ROBERTA BIVINS Wellcome Lecturer in the History of Medicine, Cardiff University, UK PETER BURKE Professor Emeritus of Cultural History, University of Cambridge, UK IAN BURNEY Senior Lecturer in the History of Medicine, Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester, UK W. F. BYNUM Professor Emeritus of the History of Medicine, University College London, UK HAROLD J. COOK Director of The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, University College London, UK LESLEY HALL Archivist at the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine and Honorary Lecturer in the History of Medicine at University College London, UK GEOFFREY L. HUDSON Assistant Professor of the History of Medicine, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Lakehead& Laurentian Universities, Canada COLIN JONES Professor of History, Queen Mary, University of London, UK EMESE LAFFERTON Lecturer in the History and Sociology of Medicine, the Science Studies Unit, University of Edinburgh, UK MARY LINDEMANN Professor of History, the University of Miami, USA MARK MICALE Lecturer in European Intellectual History and the History of Medicine, University of Illinois, USA KIM PELIS Speechwriter to the Director of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, UK DANIEL PICK Professor of History, Birkbeck, University of London, UK JOHN PICKSTONE Research Professor, Wellcome Unit and the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester, UK DOROTHY PORTER Professor in the History of Health Sciences and Chair of the Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine, University of California San Francisco, UK KATHARINA ROWOLD Lecturer in European History, London Metropolitan University, UK ANNE SECORD Affiliated Research Scholar in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge University, UK CHANDAK SENGOOPTA Reader in the History of Medicine and Science, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK AKIHITO SUZUKI Professor in History, School of Economics, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan ADRIAN WILSON Senior Lecturer in History of Medicine, University of Leeds, UK