Nervous Conditions: Science and the Body Politic in Early Industrial Britain (review)

winter 2007 practitioners occasionally reluctant to embrace new ideas, and sometimes impetuously grasping at new treatments that proved worthless (a habit that inspired the joke that it was important to take new treatments quickly, before they became ineffective). All the authors point to the downsides of progress: of the powerless patients in nineteenthcentury Paris hospitals, or the shellshocked soldier patched up and sent back to the battlefield. Although the chapters march chronologically through the period, they are not intended to give a slavish account of exactly the same subjects. each is the individual author’s own account of the period, reflecting the current literature in the history of medicine, but with room for each to explore the particular events and features of their chosen period. (Lawrence has the unenviable task of covering two world wars within his contribution, but rises to the challenge.) Authors also take the chance to shed light on some topics less familiar to most readers. Lawrence’s excellent discussion of medicine in the Soviet union should be singled out for special mention in this category. The Western Medical Tradition, 1800–2000 is aimed at students of the history of medicine. However, there is much to recommend the volume to those interested in broader historical matters, with useful material on patterns of disease, hospitals, the role of the state, welfare, and public health. All the authors make an effort to place medical developments into their wider social and political context, with Stephen Jacyna setting the early nineteenth century most solidly in a background of political upheaval and industrialisation. the book provides an excellent overview of medicine within relatively short periods. inevitably in such an ambitious project there are some omissions: there is relatively little about mental health or nursing, for example. Although the individual chapters are long (well over 100 pages in most cases), they are divided by subheadings and the book is indexed, so it is possible for students to home in on information on specific topics. the book also provides an excellent route into the secondary literature: each chapter is supplemented by a bibliographical essay, divided by topic, and there is a bibliography covering the whole volume, again split up by topic. Deborah Brunton The Open University