Bodies Politic: Disease, Death and Doctors in Britain, 1650-1900

A magisterial account by Roy Porter of representations of the body in health, disease and death

In this historical tour de force, now available in B-format paperback, Roy Porter takes a critical look at representations of the body in health, disease and death in Britain from the mid-seventeenth to the twentieth century. Porter argues that great symbolic weight was attached to contrasting conceptions of the healthy and diseased body, and that such ideas were mapped onto antithetical notions of the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly. With these images in mind, he explores aspects of being ill alongside the practice of medicine, paying special attention to self-presentations by physicians, surgeons and quacks, and to changes in practitioners’ public identities over time. Porter also examines the wider symbolic meanings of disease and doctoring and the ‘body politic’. Porter’s book is packed with outrageous and amusing anecdotes portraying diseased bodies and medical practitioners alike.

‘[A] wonderful book … There are 153 illustrations in this book, and every one is an exultation in the fleshly horrors of the era.’ - Tim Radford, The Guardian

‘[A] magical history tour of illness and public attitudes to disease and doctors over the past 250 years.’ - Val Hennessy, Daily Mail