The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity

The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of HumanityHailed as "a remarkable achievement" (Boston Globe) and as "a triumph: simultaneously entertaining and instructive, witty and thought provoking a splendid and thoroughly engrossing book" (Los Angeles Times), Roy Porter's charting of the history of medicine affords us an opportunity as never before to assess its culture and science and its costs and benefits to mankind. Porter explores medicine's evolution against the backdrop of the wider religious,

Hailed as "a remarkable achievement" (Boston Globe) and as "a triumph: simultaneously entertaining and instructive, witty and thought-provoking...a splendid and thoroughly engrossing book" (Los Angeles Times), Roy Porter's charting of the history of medicine affords us an opportunity as never before to assess its culture and science and its costs and benefits to mankind. Porter explores medicine's evolution against the backdrop of the wider religious, scientific, philosophical, and political beliefs of the culture in which it develops, covering ground from the diseases of the hunter-gatherers to the more recent threats of AIDS and Ebola, from the clearly defined conviction of the Hippocratic oath to the muddy ethical dilemmas of modern-day medicine. Offering up a treasure trove of historical surprises along the way, this book "has instantly become the standard single-volume work in its field" (The Lancet).

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 10/17/1999
ISBN: 9780393319804
Pages: 872
Weight: 2.30lbs
Size: 9.22h x 6.16w x 1.24d
Award: L.A. Times Book Prize - Winner

Review Citations: New York Times 12/12/1999 pg. 48
Ingram Advance 10/01/1999 pg. 178 - Best Of The Best/Highly Recommended