A History of Lung Cancer

The first comprehensive history of lung cancer from around 1800 to the present day; a story of doctors and patients, hopes and fears, expectations and frustrations. Where most histories of medicine focus on progress, Timmermann asks what happens when medical progress does not seem to make much difference.

(Regarding this and Timmermann's previous book, with Elizabeth Toon, Cancer Patients, Cancer Pathways: Historical and Social Perspectives , 2012) 'These books, with their origins in the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at the University of Manchester, present an excellent insight into what it has been to have cancer. Collectively, they present three theses of great value to historians of medicine. The first of these is that no single way of writing the history of cancer can ever be adequate. Cancer is transformative in ways that are anything but simple, meaning that a profusion of different narratives and techniques are required to approach anything like understanding. Second, the field of cancer medicine challenges the historian of medicine because it has often been without progress, a recurring if not universal trope among historians. The third thesis is this: not all cancers are equal. In its broadest sense, this observation is trivial. Yet these books excel at fleshing out this bit of general knowledge by illustrating substantive differences between different cancers in different contexts over the twentieth century.' - Brendan Clarke, University College London, UK

Auteur

Carsten Timmermann is a Lecturer at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester, UK. He is the editor (with Elizabeth Toon) of Cancer Patients, Cancer Pathways: Historical and Sociological Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) and (with Julie Anderson) of Devices and Designs: Medical Technologies in Historical Perspective (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).

Contenu

1. Introduction: The History of a Recalcitrant Disease 2. Lung Cancer and Consumption in the Nineteenth Century: Bodies, Tissues, Cells, and the Making of a Rare Disease 3. Lungs in the Operating Theatre, Circa 1900 to 1950 4. Science, Medicine and Politics: Lung Cancer and Smoking, Circa 1945 to 1965 5. Trials and Tribulations: Lung Cancer Treatment, Circa 1950 to 1970 6. More Enthusiasm, Please: Preventing, Screening, Treating, Classifying, Circa 1960 to 1990 7. The Management of Stigma: Lung Cancer and Charity, Circa 1990 to 2000 8. Still Recalcitrant? Some Conclusions