Walker Percy brought to his novels the perspective of both a doctor and a patient. Trained as a doctor at Columbia University, he contracted tuberculosis during his internship as a pathologist at Bellevue Hospital and spent the next three years recovering, primarily in TB sanitoriums. This collection of essays explores not only Percy’s connections to medicine but also the underappreciated impact his art has had—and can have—on medicine itself.The contributors—physicians, philosopher...

Over the past forty years, the health humanities, previously called the medical humanities, has emerged as one of the most exciting fields for interdisciplinary scholarship, advancing humanistic inquiry into bioethics, human rights, health care, and the uses of technology. It has also helped inspire medical practitioners to engage in deeper reflection about the human elements of their practice.In Health Humanities Reader, editors Therese Jones, Delese Wear, and Lester D. F...

The final gripping instalment of the bestselling Four Streets trilogy which began with THE FOUR STREETS and continued in HIDE HER NAME.Christmas morning, 1963. Fifteen-year-old Kitty Doherty gives birth in a cold, unfriendly Irish convent. She knows her beautiful baby boy presents a huge danger to her family's Catholic community back in Liverpool's Four Streets. When her baby is adopted by a wealth...

The publisher's special commentary chapter and the author's biography are included in this version.The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton is one of the fiction best sellers in 1921, the year it also won the Pulitzer Prize. The story is set in upper-class New York City in the 1870s. It centers on a couple's impending marriage, and the introduction of a woman plagued by scandal whose presence threatens their happiness.The novel is lauded for its accurate portrayal of how the 19...

We all feel uncomfortable about the role of profit in healthcare, we all have a vague notion that the global $600bn pharmaceutical industry is somehow evil and untrustworthy, but that sense rarely goes beyond a flaky, undifferentiated new age worldview. Bad Pharma puts real flesh on those bones, revealing the rigged evidence used by drug companies. Bad information means bad treatment decisions, which means patients suffer and die: there is no climactic moment of villainy, but drug...

When two men approach adventurer Allan Quartermain to lead an expedition into unexplored areas of Africa in search of a man lost while trying to find the fabled treasure horde located at King Solomon’s Mines, Quartermain agrees to be their guide. Armed with a map that purports to show the way to this legendary treasure and aided by a mysterious local named Umbopa, the men set out on an adventure into the darkest regions of Africa.H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines is ...

A New York Times Bestseller, with an updated explanation of the 2010 Health Reform BillBringing to bear his talent for explaining complex issues in a clear, engaging way, New York Times bestselling author T. R. Reid visits industrialized democracies around the world--France, Britain, Germany, Japan, and beyond--to provide a revelatory tour of successful, affordable universal health care systems. Now updated with new statistics and a plain-English ...

Thorstein Veblen's 'The Theory of the Leisure Class' is a seminal work that critiques the social norms and practices of the upper class in the late 19th century America. Veblen's sharp and satirical writing style sheds light on the concept of 'conspicuous consumption' and 'pecuniary emulation' that govern the lifestyle of the leisure class. Through a blend of economics, sociology, and anthropology, Veblen dissects the role of wealth and leisure in shaping societal hierarchies, making a com...

Cancer touches more lives than you may think. According to the World Health Organization, one out of three women alive today, and one out of two men, will face a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime.To Ty Bollinger, this isn’t just a statistic. It’s personal. After losing seven members of his family to cancer over the course of a decade, Ty set out on a global quest to learn as much as he possibly could about cancer treatments and the medical industry that surrounds t...

Over the last twenty-five years, medicine and consumerism have been on an unchecked collision course, but, until now, the fallout from their impact has yet to be fully uncovered. A writer for The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly, Carl Elliott ventures into the uncharted dark side of medicine, shining a light on the series of social and legislative changes that have sacrificed old-style doctoring to the values of consumer capitalism. Along the way, he introduce...

"An in-depth, well-researched, and thoughtful exploration of the 'fat boom' in America." — The Boston GlobeLow carb, high protein, raw foods . . . despite our seemingly endless obsession with fad diets, the startling truth is that six out of ten Americans are overweight or obese. In Fat Land, award-winning nutrition and health journalist Greg Critser examines the facts and societal factors behind the sensational headlines, taking on everyt...

The long-unavailable work by one of America's most eminent writers.Drinks Before Dinner, called “witty and provocative” by the New York Times, is E.L. Doctorow’s only play. A tour-de-force of language and ideas concerning the individual’s role in and response to contemporary America, Drinks Before Dinner revolves around a dinner party for the economically privileged.As Doctorow writes in his introduction, “[This play] deals in general statements a...