610. Medicine & Health Books

Lots of books in health and medicine win awards. And for good reason: it’s something we all care about. These three books cover medicine as a whole.

Further Reading

William E. Habiltzel It Was Only  Moment Ago: More Stories of Healing and Wisdom along Life’s Journey, 2013.

Using the lives of his patients as examples, physician William E. Habiltzel shares the wisdom he has acquired from treating them. Life passes by quickly, he says, and if we aren’t careful, we may miss it by living in the past or waiting for the future.

James Le Fanu Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine, 2002.

After World War II, the achievements of modern medicine seemed unending. With the advent of open-heart surgery, vaccines for smallpox, and organ transplants, the outlook for healthcare seemed limitless. But in comparison to those years, the last quarter of the twentieth century yielded few major breakthroughs. James Le Fanu examines why in this well-researched work.

Roy Porter The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity from Antiquity to the Present, 1999.

Prolific author Roy Porter tells the history of medicine from ancient times to the end of the twentieth century. Covering both the good and the bad medical practice has wrought through the years, he focuses on the culture and science that brought us to our modern medical landscape.

For more information on these and other books, see my post Further Reading: Start Here.