Showing titles in History & Commentary

Plague and pestilence have both fascinated and terrified humanity from the very beginning. Societies and individuals have struggled to make sense of them, and more importantly, they’ve often struggled to avoid them. Before the scientific age, people had no knowledge of the microbiological agents - unseen bacteria and viruses - which afflicted them, and thus, the maladies were often ascribed to wrathful supernatural forces.

Medical historian Sally Sheard reveals the heroic characters and incredible innovations that have shaped our NHS. On 5th July 1948, for the first time anywhere in the world, healthcare in Britain became free for all. Sally Sheard looks at the highs and lows that followed the launch of the National Health Service - and describes what life was like before it. Drawing on unique archive recordings of staff, patients and politicians, including visionary NHS founders William Beveridge and Aneurin Bevan, she tells the stories behind 20 key moments in the history of the NHS.

In the 1970s, a small group of leading psychiatrists met behind closed doors and literally rewrote the book on their profession. Revising and greatly expanding the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM for short), they turned what had been a thin, spiral-bound handbook into a hefty tome. Almost overnight the number of diagnoses exploded. The result was a windfall for the pharmaceutical industry and a massive conflict of interest for psychiatry at large.

For Chinese immigrant Wong Chut King, surviving in San Francisco meant a life in the shadows. His passing on March 6, 1900, would have been unremarkable if a city health officer hadn't noticed a swollen black lymph node on his groin - a sign of bubonic plague. Empowered by racist pseudoscience, officials rushed to quarantine Chinatown while doctors examined Wong's tissue for telltale bacteria. If the devastating disease was not contained, San Francisco would become the American epicenter of an outbreak that had already claimed 10 million lives worldwide.  

In the Great War, every act of courage counted… Angelina Green never knew her mother, who left her in a cardboard box by the East London docks on a freezing November night when she was a tiny baby. Saved by a local orphanage, she knows she owes her life to the kindness of others. And she’s...

Trace the gripping medical history of our most vital fluid, where the science of survival meets ancient mystical rituals. Perfect for your morning commute or an immersive deep dive, this fascinating narrative sweeps from ancient altars to the sterile intensity of modern operating rooms...

Step into the gripping medical history where daring surgeons defied mortality to turn forbidden science into a lifeline. Perfect for a focused commute, this intense narrative nonfiction journey explores the high-stakes ethical battles of playing God. Witness the raw emotion of desperate patients...

Uncover the turbulent history of psychology and the fight for human dignity in this eye-opening exploration of madness. Perfect for a reflective commute or a deep learning session, this narrative reveals how humanity has treated psychological distress across centuries. You will journey from...

Uncover the gripping medical history of human transplantation and the fierce bioethical battles defying mortality. Perfect for a thought-provoking daily commute, this fascinating narrative traces our quest to replace failing body parts, moving from ancient myths to modern surgical miracles. It...

Uncover the gripping medical history of a deadly global pandemic that reshaped human society but vanished from memory. Perfect for an educational commute or a reflective evening listen, this narrative thrusts you into a world already fractured by war. Experience the tension as an invisible enemy...

A devastating ancient pandemic shatters the mighty Roman Empire in this gripping medical history of survival and ruin. Perfect for your daily commute, this atmospheric journey transports you to the glittering, disease-ridden streets of sixth-century Constantinople. Experience the shocking...

Step into a gripping military history where imperial hubris and catastrophic blunders birthed the modern medical era. Perfect for your daily commute, this intense narrative sweeps from opulent European courts to the disease-ridden trenches of the Black Sea. Witness how a provincial religious...

Speaking out bluntly, the CDC director during the first years of Covid-19 reveals what went right and what mistakes were made throughout the pandemic. Most importantly, he outlines a program of what needs to be done now to prepare for the bird flu pandemic that not only is coming—but may already be here.

A frontline doctor’s sweeping, deeply researched, and intimately written chronicle of the centuries-long effort to understand and effectively treat sepsis—one of history’s most lethal, misunderstood maladies and the leading cause of death for children worldwide. When presented with a patient with a severe infection, there is one question that everyone must ask themselves: Could it be sepsis?

A pediatrician and infectious disease specialist warns of the resurgence of measles, the antivaccine movement, and how we can prepare for the next pandemic Every single child diagnosed with measles represents a system failure—an inexcusable unforced error. The technology to prevent essentially...

Le héros miraculeux d'Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt poursuit sa traversée sur le fleuve du temps. Après le Néolithique, le voici plongé dans une nouvelle enquête au cœur de l'Orient ancien... Noam cherche fougueusement celle qu'il aime, enlevée dans d'étranges conditions. Flanqué de son chien, il découvre un monde en pleine mutation, la Mésopotamie, autrement appelée le Pays des Eaux Douces, où les hommes viennent d'inventer les villes, l'écriture, l'astronomie. À Babel, cité bruyante et colorée, belle de jour comme de nuit, il affronte le tyran Nemrod.

Award-winning New York Times reporter Donald G. McNeil, Jr. reflects on twenty-five years of covering pandemics—how governments react to them, how the media covers them, how they are exploited, and what we can do to prepare for the next one—in this “fascinating, ferocious fusillade against...

“A fascinating journey into the heart and mind of a physician” that explores the doctor-patient relationship, the flaws in our health care system, and how doctors’ emotions impact medical care (Boston Globe) While much has been written about the minds and methods of the medical...

With honesty, humility, and a commitment to the health and well-being of all children, Between a Shot and a Hard Place challenges the polarizing rhetoric and offers a path forward—one that respects individual choices while fostering informed, thoughtful dialogue.

In 1995, a scandal erupted when the New York Times revealed that the Smithsonian possessed a century’s worth of nude “posture” photos of college students. In this riveting history, Beth Linker tells why these photos were only a small part of the incredible story of twentieth-century America’s largely forgotten posture panic—a decades-long episode in which it was widely accepted as scientific fact that Americans were suffering from an epidemic of bad posture, with potentially catastrophic health consequences.