Rating: Summary: Everything you know is wrong... Review: Very rarely, I come across a book so enjoyable that I have to put everything else on hold until I finish reading it. This is one of those books. It combines fanscinating information, intriguing analysis, and a thoroughly enjoyable writing style.The book is divided into two major sections: an extended prologue, and the book proper. The prologue is nearly half of the book, and it describes twelve definitive moments in medicine in the past 50 years. This section is informative and enjoyable, and the book is worth reading for this part alone. The second section is even better. Le Fanu believes that medicine experienced its Golden Age during the fifties and sixties, and is now in decline. He provides compelling evidence in support of this claim, and his discussions on the false hopes brought about by genetics, and the falsity of the Social Theory (the theory that most of our health problems are caused by environmental factors) are great, and probably largely correct. This is a book that I would recommend to anyone. It is easy enough for the layman to understand, and I think that those in the medical profession will get a lot out of it, whether they agree with the author or not. READ THIS BOOK!!!
|