|
Picturing Medical
Progress from Pasteur to Polio
Price: $37.95
Subtitle: A History of Mass
Media Images and Popular Attitudes in America
Author:
Bert Hansen
Subject: Medicine,
American
Studies
Paper ISBN: 978-0-8135-4576-9
Cloth ISBN: 978-0-8135-4526-4
Pages:
350 pages, 108 black
and white and 22 color illustrations
Publication Date: July 2009
Praise for
Picturing Medical
Progress From Pasteur to Polio
"This book is analytical,
nostalgic, sensitive, and just plain fun. Bert Hansen's meticulous
privileging of the visual is a pathbreaking achievement for methods in
the social and cultural history of medicine. You can be rewarded simply
by looking at the wonderful pictures, but you will "see" so much more
in his lively prose."—Jacalyn Duffin, Hannah Professor, Queen's University,
and former president of the American Association for the History of
Medicine
"Even as a long-time collector of medical prints, I learned a lot from
this extraordinary book. Hansen's digging has turned up many
discoveries, providing a new perspective on graphic art in popular
culture. The images are wonderful, but this is not just a picture book;
it's a great read as well, filled with remarkable insights."—William Helfand, author of five books on medical
imagery and a trustee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art
"Picturing Medical Progress from Pasteur to
Polio is an authoritative, well-written account that will be a
significant contribution not only to the history of American medicine,
but to the history of American popular culture."—Elizabeth Toon, Centre for the History of Science,
Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester
"That doctors and their work routinely populate all forms of popular
American culture is a historical aberration. Bert Hansen begins his
illustrated account of the start of this phenomenon with the
observation that until late in the 19th century, no one really wanted
any more contact with doctors than was necessary—certainly not in
publications intended to entertain. Louis Pasteur changed all that. As
scientific triumphs accumulated, the hagiography of the doctor spread
throughout the media, from print advertisements to radio spots, from
comic books to adoring photo essays in Life magazine."—Abigail Zuger, New
York Times
Description:
Today, pharmaceutical
companies, HMOs, insurance carriers, and the health care system in
general may often puzzle and frustrate the general public—and even
physicians and researchers. By contrast, from the 1880s through the
1950s Americans enthusiastically embraced medicine and its
practitioners. Picturing Medical
Progress from Pasteur to Polio offers a refreshing portrait of
an era when the public excitedly anticipated medical progress and
research breakthroughs.
This unique study with 130 archival illustrations drawn from newspaper
sketches, caricatures, comic books, Hollywood films, and LIFE magazine photography analyzes
the relationship between mass media images and popular attitudes. Bert
Hansen considers the impact these representations had on public
attitudes and shows how media portrayal and popular support for medical
research grew together and reinforced each other.
About the Author:
Bert
Hansen, a professor of history at Baruch College, has published
a book on medieval science and many articles on the history of modern
medicine and public health.
Relevant Links:
Bert Hansen's website
Baruch College History Department
Literature, Arts and Medicine Blog
Receive
special offers and book notices by email. Sign up for RU READING?
Price: $37.95
|
