A Short History of Medicine

Immerse yourself in the history of medicine, a colorful story of skill, serendipity, mistakes, moments of genius, and dogged determination.

From ancient ideas about anatomy to today's sophisticated gene therapies and robotic surgery, A Short History of Medicine combines riveting storytelling and beautiful images, historical accounts and lucid explanations, to illuminate the story of medicine through the ages.

Packed with photographs, diagrams, and visual analyses, this book illustrates the science, equipment, trial and error, and great medical practitioners central to this extraordinary story. Witness early, bloody, anesthetic-free operations; see the first crude surgical instruments; trace the mapping of the circulatory system; follow the painstaking detective work that led to the decoding of the human genome; and understand the role that potions, cures, therapies, herbal medicines, and drugs have played in the human quest to tame and conquer disease, injury, and death.

A Short History of Medicine is an engrossing tale of drama and discovery that celebrates the milestones of medical history across generations and cultures.

Steve Parker is a writer, editor, and consultant specializing in general science and life sciences and a Senior Scientific Fellow of the Zoological Society of London. Steve has written more than 250 books, including The Human Body, Eyewitness Medicine, Eyewitness Human Body, and Medicine. He has been shortlisted for prizes ranging from BBC Blue Peter Book of the Year to Times Educational Supplement Information Book of the Year and the Rhône-Poulenc Prize, and won the 2014 BMA Board of Science Award for the Public Understanding of Science.