Customer Reviews

A good read - By: Ibrahim Ali, 04 Jul 2008
A history of medicine with a difference. This book tells more of the failures than of the triumphs & it is all the more richer for that. Medicine should have progressed faster than it did but to blame doctors entirely is not quite giving the whole picture. Similarly there some things that Wooton says that seem wrongin their entirety & putting the start date of medicinein the late eighteen hundred is a little disingenuous & ignores some of the early pioneers. Wooton's dismissal of the early medical profession is a little too arbitrary & the book could have used some better scholarshipin backing the arguments it makes. Similarly ignoring economics & politics is also perhaps a little foolhardy especially when debating the dangers of smoking. Wooton manages to have this debate without mentioning Big Tobacco & their lobbies. Nevertheless this is an interesting social history of medicine & one that deserves to be read by all.

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Doctor bashing - not on your life - By: S. Harding, 24 Oct 2006
This is a well written & thought provoking book. It is supported by a website that is insightful & allows further investigation into some of the aspects raised within the book.

It is not a bash at doctors, but does lay out the history & progression of medicinein a new & fresh way. When I was reading it I spent time laughing & time feeling quite repulsed by some of the things that we have donein the name of medicine.

All I can say is READ it!