The Greatest Benefit to Mankind (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Roy Porter
- First Published: 1998
- Type of Work: History
- Time of Work: Prehistory to the present
- Principal Characters: Hippocrates, Galen, Andreas Vesalius, William Harvey, Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch
- Genres: Nonfiction, History
- Subjects: History, Science or scientists, Doctors, Medicine, Greek or Roman times, Folk medicine, Mind and body, Physiology
With The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity, Roy Porter has produced a monumental history of medicine, both as an institution and as an aspiration. It can be read as an encyclopedia of medical development through the ages. It is also an extended meditation on the purposes and limits of medicine. On both levels, it is a highly impressive work. Porter’s history will likely live as a standard work for years to come.
Porter writes with authority. He holds a chair in the social history of science at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Science in...
[The entire page is 2058 words long]
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