Insightful informed and at times controversial in its conclusions A Short History of Medicine offers an exceptional introduction to the major and many minor facets of its subject. In this lively learned and wholly engrossing volume F. González-Crussi presents a brief yet authoritative five-hundred-year history of the science the philosophy and the controversies of modern medicine. While this illuminating work mainly explores Western medicine over the past five centuries González-Crussi also describes how modern medicine s roots extend to both Greco-Roman antiquity and Eastern medical traditions. Covered here in engaging detail are the birth of anatomy and the practice of dissections; the transformation of surgery from a gruesome art to a sophisticated medical specialty; a short history of infectious diseases; the evolution of the diagnostic process; advances in obstetrics and anesthesia; and modern psychiatric therapies and the challenges facing organized medicine today. Written by a renowned author and educator this book gives us the very essence of our search to mitigate suffering save lives and unlock the mysteries of the human animal. [González-Crussi fuses] science literature and personal history into highly civilized artifacts. -The Washington Post on There Is a World Elsewhere