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Recommendations for medical history
My dad (a veterinarian by trade) is really into medical history, so I was wondering if folks had any recommendations or favorites. I know he's done a lot of reading about the history of vaccines and the Spanish flu epidemic, but it's really not my area of interest, so I'm somewhat at a loss for how to find him something. Ideally it would be something available on audiobook because that's mostly how he consumes books these days.
Edit: Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I am not sure he has the wherewithal to do podcasts, but the book recommendations are great. I'm going with The Emperor of All Maladies and The Ghost Map, assuming he doesn't have them already.
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer is a book written by Siddhartha Mukherjee is pretty good. In addition to the history and medicine, I remember him going in to how the major diseases of an era reflect the social anxieties people have.
I cannot recommend this book enough. It is a very well written overview of the history of cancer treatment (including in its absolutely nightmarish early days) and cancer research, and also about the daunting complexity of cancer biology. It is a fantastic history book but also one that I recommend to anyone who just wants learn more about cancer.
Is he interested in podcasts? Sawbones is a pretty funny medical history podcast hosted by a family medicine doctor and her professional Podcaster husband.
Bedside Rounds (http://bedside-rounds.org/) is another great medical history podcast.
Shrinks: The Untold Story of Psychiatry by Jeffrey A. Lieberman with Ogi Ogas (4.1/5 on goodreads). It gives an easy to read history of psychiatry in the United States, by a former president of the APA. There’s also some form of critique on the DSM V, if that’s of interest.
Not a book, but the podcast Bedside Rounds has some great medical history stories. For example this episode is on vaccines during the small pox epidemic: https://pca.st/episode/3964f32e-09d5-4577-aa11-58091a74648d
Not exactly history, but anything by neurologist Oliver Sacks. I like the Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.
The Ghost Map is the history of the discovery of the cause of Cholera
Thank you! I am pretty sure he has read the Oliver Sacks books, because he has told me about the one you mentioned. But I think he liked them.
Side note: "Oliver Sacks" should be the answer to "what did you carry when you accompanied your wife on her shopping trip."
The Ghost Map is a great read about a cholera outbreak in Victorian-era London, and how the doctors of the time attempted to isolate it.
I know this is not a book, but since you mentioned that he enjoys audiobooks, I just have to mention the documentary series Victorian Pharmacy. It has a lowkey presentation that I think would appeal to someone who enjoys audiobooks.
Great medical history books I've read in the last couple of years, not already mentioned:
The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine, by Lindsey Fitzharris
How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS, by David France
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity, by Steve Silberman
Rabid: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus, by Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy - *would be a great gift for a vet
Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything, authors Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen
The Song of the Cell; An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human, by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Dying in the City of the Blues: Sickle Cell Anemia and the Politics of Race and Health, by Keith Wailoo
Awesome, thank you!
I’d also like to recommend, “spare parts,” it’s about the history of transplant surgery.