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Jacalyn Duffin's History of Medicine is one of the leading texts used to teach the history of the medical profession. Emphasizing broad concepts rather than names and dates, it has also been widely appreciated by general readers for more than twenty years. Based on sound scholarship and meticulous research, History of Medicine incorporates pithy examples from a range of periods and places and is infused with the author’s characteristic wit.
The third edition has been completely revised to highlight new scholarship on the past and incorporate significant medical events of the most recent decade – including new technologies, drug shortages, medical assistance in dying, and recent outbreaks of infectious diseases such as Ebola, H1N1, Zika, and COVID-19. The book is organized around themes of scientific and clinical interest, such as anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, surgery, obstetrics, medical education, health-care delivery, and public health. It includes a chapter on how to approach research in medical history, updated with new resources. History of Medicine is sensitive to the power of historical research to inform current health-care practice and enhance cultural understanding.
The third edition of this bestselling introduction to medical history has been thoroughly updated to include recent scholarship and new events in major fields of medical endeavor.
- Imprint: University of Toronto Press
- Published: June 2021
- Pages: 560
Jacalyn Duffin is a physician, a historian, and Hannah Professor Emerita at Queen’s University.
"The facts are often fascinating and the prose is lively and accessible, guaranteeing interesting reading even for those on the receiving end of the stethoscope."
Debby Waldman
Quill and Quire
"The first readers of this History of Medicine should be medical students. As the director of a history of medicine program I welcome this book, for at last I have a good textbook to recommend ... It should be bought by, or better still, presented to each Canadian medical student as a reward for acceptance into medical school."
Peter Warren
Canadian Medical Association Journal
"A rollicking ride through the history of medicine ... Each chapter represents the tried-and-true teaching methods of the author ... [these], combined with the author's lucid writing style and often humorous approach, made me envious of Duffin's students."
Hughes Evans
Isis
"Duffin's book is not only concise but also entertaining and enlightening ... a valuable, good-natured overview of a large topic that challenges everyone who teaches the history of medicine to do a better job."
Barron H. Lerner
Journal of the History of Medicine
"This book is a superbly crafted volume readily accessible to the medical students for whom it was intended but equally rewarding to historians of all stripes for its wide-ranging and insightful discussions of the development of medicine from antiquity to Ebola and AIDS ... a reminder of the splendor and fascination of healing and its lengthy and compelling history."
Susan E. Lederer
Canadian Bulletin of Medical History
"As a textbook it is not scandalously short, but great, concise, and straightforward. Recommended!"
Charlotte Haug
Journal of Norwegian Medical Association
"Deftly weaving together her insight as historian, clinician, and teacher, one of history of medicine’s most brilliant storytellers has crafted a volume inviting and accessible to the student and enriching for the most seasoned medical historian. Jacalyn Duffin’s wonderfully idiosyncratic voice vibrates through every page. Authoritative and intellectually playful, this book vividly displays the power of history as a tool for thinking about medicine today."
John Harley Warner, Avalon Professor of the History of Medicine, Professor of History and of American Studies, and Chair of the History of Science & Medicine Program, Yale University
"By George, I think she’s done it! Duffin’s newly revised, ‘scandalous’ text finally answers the question, Can you recommend a good book that would introduce me to the history of medicine? (asks the fellow doctor, or history colleague, or interested student). Ranging intelligently from ancient Egypt to the modern, and entertaining the reader with copious illustrations and pithy quotes along the way, this book is a marvelous resource."
Margaret Humphreys, Josiah C. Trent Professor of the History of Medicine, Duke University
"Jacalyn Duffin’s History of Medicine perfectly illustrates that the history of medicine has an important role to play in framing and informing contemporary medicine and society. Relevant, incisive, frank, and at times quite (scandalously) funny, the book should be read by medical students, their faculty, their patients, and historians alike."
Scott Harris Podolsky, Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Director of the Center for the History of Medicine at Countway Medical Library, and Primary Care Physician at Massachusetts General Hospital