By Jarlin Espinal, Technical Services Assistant

Below is a selection of some of our recently acquired secondary sources in the history of medicine, along with blurbs about each book. Make an appointment to come and use them!

Nine of the library’s new acquisitions. Click to enlarge.

Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case – Debbie Nathan

“Sybil Exposed isn’t only an exposé of a blockbuster that pulled the wool over 6 million readers’ eyes … Riveting, thought-provoking and a quick read, Sybil Exposed is impossible to put down.” – The Oregonian

Representing Argentinian Mothers: Medicine, Ideas and Culture in the Modern Era, 1900–1946 – Yolanda Eraso

“Through detailed examination of a rich selection of sources including medical texts, newspapers, novels, photojournalism, and paintings, Representing Argentinian Mothers adopts an interdisciplinary approach and an innovative framework based on categories and notions drawn from the history of ideas and cultural history. By enquiring about the influence of medicine in the field of ideas, beliefs and images, Yolanda Eraso elaborates new insights to understand their interaction, which will appeal to anyone with an interest in the Medical Humanities.”

The Making of Mr. Gray’s Anatomy: Bodies, Books, Fortune, Fame – Ruth Richardson

“It is the story of changing attitudes in the mid-19th century; of the social impact of science, the changing status of medicine; of poverty and class; of craftsmanship and technology. And it all unfolds in the atmospheric milieu of Victorian London—taking the reader from the smart townhouses of Belgravia, to the dissection room of St. George’s Hospital, and to the workhouses and mortuaries where we meet the friendless poor who would ultimately be immortalised in Carter’s engravings.”

Life Writing and Schizophrenia: Encounters at the Edge of Meaning – Mary Elene Wood

“Challenging the romanticized connection between literature and madness, Life Writing and Schizophrenia explores how writers who hear voices and experience delusions write their identities into narrative, despite popular and medical representations of schizophrenia as chaos, violence, and incoherence. The study juxtaposes these narratives to case histories by clinicians writing their encounters with those diagnosed with schizophrenia, encounters that call their own narrative authority and coherence into question.”

Before Bioethics: A History of American Medical Ethics from the Colonial Period to the Bioethics Revolution – Robert Baker

“Before Bioethics narrates the history of American medical ethics from its colonial origins to current bioethical controversies over abortion, AIDS, animal rights, and physician-assisted suicide. This comprehensive history tracks the evolution of American medical ethics over four centuries, from colonial midwives and physicians’ oaths to medical society codes, through the bioethics revolution.”

Cannabis Nation: Control and Consumption in Britain, 1928-2008 – James H. Mills

“Overall, anyone with an interest in cannabis and indeed, illicit drugs more widely would find the book of interest. The meticulous research challenges commonly held perceptions. … an amusing and eminently readable piece of work.” – Mark Monaghan, Journal of Social Policy

American Pandemic: The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic – Nancy K. Bristow

“A richly detailed picture of American society as it experienced an extraordinary trauma—one that shook a newly established confidence in the efficacy of medicine and the responsiveness of civil society. Doctors, nurses, the friends and families of the sick all play a part in this carefully and imaginatively researched and lucidly written account of America’s last great epidemic.” – Charles Rosenberg, Harvard University

How Cancer Crossed the Color Line – Keith Wailoo

“A model of how to seamlessly weave together the complex intersectionality of class, gender and race. How Cancer Crossed the Color Line is a masterful account of how the reward structures of science funding, the profession of medicine, era-specific cultural stereotypes of women’s ‘proper place,’ and shifting notions of racialized bodies have all converged to shape our views of who is at risk for cancer, and why.” – Troy Duster, New York University

Medical Visions: Producing the Patient through Film, Television, and Imaging Technologies – Kirsten Ostherr

“Kirsten Ostherr shows us how we might learn to see—and to experience—health and illness differently. Medical Visions is crucial reading for anyone who practices medicine and for anyone who is, has been, or will be a patient—which is to say, all of us.” – Priscilla Wald, author of Contagious