neurologists A history of a medical specialty in modern Britain, c.1789–2000
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Stephen T. Casper is Assistant Professor in History of Science at Clarkson University<p>'An important contribution to our understanding of specialization in medicine. Casper's carefully researched and lucidly argued study presents an illuminating picture of the way in which British neurology developed an intellectual and ultimately institutional identity separate from that of elite medicine generally. It is a complex and nuanced story that cannot be explained by technological innovation or market incentives alone.'<br />Charles Rosenberg, Harvard University<br /><br />'A most substantial and illuminating contribution, not only to the history of neurology, but also to our understanding of scientific-medical disciplines and the relationship of science to its broader context. Casper uses the confusing and often contradictory usages of the words “neurology” and “neurologist” by historical actors in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as points of departure for a convincing and richly contextualized historical account of neurology and the dynamics of specialization.'<br />Professor Daniel Todes, The Johns Hopkins University|This book is an able work of scholarship. [...] It is an impressive and cogent analysis with a persuasive aura throughout of attention to detail. I commend it warmly.<br />, John Walton (Lord Walton of Detchant), Brain: A Journal of Neurology, Book Review, 26 August 2014|The neurologists, a history of a medical speciality in modern Britain, c.1789–2000 is the title of a hardback by Stephen T Casper (I(SBN 978-0-7190-9192-6) published by Manchester University Press. Several recent books on the history of the neurosciences have appeared but this volume differs particularly in that it deals with the speciality in Britain and shows the evolution from the early areas of general medicine through specialisation, to the early clinicians at the turn of the 1800s into the 1900s, the war years and the separation from psychiatry, to the first specialists in the National Health Service, to the generation now reaching retirement age, and to those who are deep in the science and who have not known the era before satisfactory imaging, neurophysiology and neurochemistry. A long evolution and a fascinating story. Casper comments ‘while many physicians and scientists have engaged with the history of their fields, I think there are few academic disciplines or clinical specialities where that is so especially the case as it is for neurology’.<br /><br />, Journal of Medical Biography, Nov issue, 12 June 2015<br /><br />‘The book is thoughtful about its theme and supported with a wealth of historical detail based on archival records; and it engages with a wide range of secondary literature.’<br />Roger Smith, Moscow (RU), Gesnerus 73/2 (2016)<br /><br />‘Casper provides a marvellous and perceptive analysis of the need to understand past conflicts, contrasts, and alliances between specialist groups in their own terms.’<br />Tara H. Abraham, Department of History, University of Guelph, Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, June 2017</p>
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Introduction: From physician to neurologist
1. Physicians in neurological societies: neurologists in general medical societies
2. World War I and the transformation of neurology
3. Neurology in interwar Britain
4. Neurology and state medicine
5. The integrative legacy of contemporary neurology
Bibliography
Index
Since the 1990s, the English-speaking world has seen the rise of a neuroculture derived from neurology and neuroscience. This book asks: how did we arrive at this moment? What is it about neurology and neuroscience that makes neuroculture seem self-evident? To tell this story, The neurologists charts a chronological course from the time of the French Revolution to after the ‘Decade of the Brain’ that outlines the rise of medical and scientific neurology and the emergence of neuroculture. With its focus chiefly on Great Britain, arguably the place where it all began, it describes how Victorian physicians located in a medical culture that privileged general knowledge over narrow specialism came to be transformed into the specialised physicians now called neurologists.
Recasting the received history of neurology and the history of professions and specialties, it provides new insights into the social, cultural, and institutional practices of British medical and scientific culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Delving into how and why physicians and scientists were interested in nerves, the nervous system, the brain, and the psyche, The neurologists explores how Renaissance-styled men and women of medicine and science made neurology the medical field seemingly most concerned by the ‘philosophical status of man.’