"A magical history tour of illness and public attitudes to disease
and doctors over the past 250 years. Dense with thought-provoking
reflections and makes you realize how very much we remain at the
mercy of all too fallible doctors." Val Hennessy, Daily Mail"
"A riveting account. The great strength of this book lies in its
use of visual material. Porter has made a fine attempt at helping
us understand the past through caricature, illustrations and
sketches as well as his own words. It is these images, by the likes
of Cruikshank and Rowlandson, which make this such an excoriating
account." Catherine Pepinster, The Independent on Sunday"
"His style at once grand and accessible, his knowledge expansive,
his insights while certainly contestable provocative, Porter makes
you think. Few have been as prolific or far-reaching in their work,
and fewer still have been able to return to their subjects time and
again with such grace and skill." Virginia Quarterly Review, Vol.
78, No. 1"
"Renowned historian Roy Porter here takes us on an entertaining
trip through 250 years of visual and verbal accounts of the body
and medicine. . . In Bodies Politic, Porter combines erudition, a
sharp sense of humor, and abundant art to show how contrasting
conceptions of the healthy and diseased body were mapped onto
antithetical notions of the good and the bad, the beautiful and the
ugly." The Education Digest, August 2001"
"The book is handsomely printed, and the reproductions are of good
quality an essential requirement in a book of this kind. Porter's
knowledge of the material is unrivaled, and when he writes in
unadorned fashion of the careers of doctors, writers and artists,
he could hardly be bettered. Porter's book may be read with great
pleasure and profit." Anthony Daniels, Sunday Telegraph"
"This handsome book offers further insights into Roy Porter's
extensive medical history of the 'long eighteenth century'. . .
Lavish pictorial histories of medicine have become common lately,
some of them offering little beyond their illustrations. Porter's
account is solid and engaging, supported rather than dominated by
the pictures. . . In offering his own analysis, Roy Porter also
offers scope for variant interpretations." Anne Crowther. Times
Literary Supplement, February 15, 2002"
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