(Ebook) Disease & History: From ancient times to Covid-19 by Frederick F. Cartwright; Michael Biddiss

(Ebook) Disease & History: From ancient times to Covid-19 by Frederick F. Cartwright; Michael Biddiss

This book had its origins in debate and collaboration between a doctor and a historian, each concerned to provide the general reader with an accessible account of some of the principal ways in which disease has often made a dramatic mark upon history.

The first edition was published in 1972, after which it received various reprintings and was also translated into French and Japanese. An enlarged and fully revised second edition then appeared in 2000, and subsequently became the object of a still wider range of foreign translations. By the time that I undertook some further updating for a paperback version issued four years later, my co-author Frederick Cartwright had died at the end of a very long and distinguished career not only as a consultant anaesthetist but also as a pioneering writer and teacher on topics related to the development of medical ideas and practice. A further edition of the book appeared in 2014, ending with my substantially enlarged treatment of topics that flow from the past into major issues of current and future concern. I am grateful to Andrew Lownie for having now encouraged me to prepare a fourth edition, reinforcing such analysis with a new and particularly topical Epilogue. This assesses, as far as is currently possible in the midst of swiftly changing circumstances, the nature and historical significance of the Covid-19 pandemic which began to develop so rapidly in the course of 2020.

In preparing the present edition I have again enjoyed the benefit of dialogue with Dr James Willis. His medical knowledge and wisdom stem from extensive experience in general practice, and I am most appreciative of the helpful comments that he has continued to make in precisely the same spirit of inter-disciplinary collaboration as originally inspired Disease and History. Further warm thanks for assistance in preparing this updated version are due to Louise Dilloway and Lesley Willis, as well as to James Faktor and his colleagues at Lume