19th century
A01=Michael Bliss
Author_Michael Bliss
biography
Category=DNBT
Category=MBX
contagious
cure
discovery
disease
epidemic
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
fatalism
frederick banting
harvey cushing
healthcare
history
innovation
insulin
johns hopkins
life expectancy
medical breakthroughs
medicine
montreal
nonfiction
professionalism
religion
research
science
smallpox
stem
suffering
surgeons
toronto
treatment
vaccine
william osler
Product details
- ISBN 9780226059013
- Weight: 255g
- Dimensions: 15 x 22mm
- Publication Date: 15 Feb 2011
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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At the dawn of the twenty-first century, we have become accustomed to medical breakthroughs and conditioned to assume that, regardless of what ails us, doctors almost certainly will be able to help - not just by diagnosing illnesses and alleviating our pain, but by actually treating or even curing diseases, and significantly improving our lives. For most of human history, however, that was far from the case, as veteran medical historian Michael Bliss explains in "The Making of Modern Medicine". Focusing on a few key moments in the transformation of medical care, Bliss reveals the way that new discoveries and new approaches led doctors and patients alike to discard fatalism and their traditional religious acceptance of suffering in favor of a new faith in health care and in the capacity of doctors to treat disease.
He takes readers to three turning points - a devastating smallpox outbreak in Montreal in 1885, the founding of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Medical School, and the discovery of insulin - and recounts the lives of three crucial figures - researcher Frederick Banting, surgeon Harvey Cushing, and physician William Osler - turning medical history into a fascinating story of dedication and discovery. Compact and compelling, this searching history vividly depicts and explains the emergence of modern medicine - and, in a provocative epilogue, outlines the paradoxes and confusions underlying our contemporary understanding of disease, death, and life itself.
Michael Bliss is University Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, a recipient of the Order of Canada, and an honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He is the award-winning author of many books, including The Discovery of Insulin, William Osler: A Life in Medicine, and Harvey Cushing: A Life in Surgery.
