Philippa Martyr
PARADISE OF QUACKS
An alternative history of medicine in Australia 1788-2002
This is both a sparkling, witty book and a full-length scholarly history of medicine in Australia. It is a history of scientific medicine that looks at the field's disreputable origins in the convict colony and its struggle for respectability over the next 200 years.
It is also a history of alternative medicine that covers the growth of popular non-scientific therapies. It is a clearly-written work that will appeal to those working in the fields of both professional medicine and alternative health therapies. It will also provide many fascinating insights for their patients.
" ... a refreshing and provocative history of medicine in Australia and of the politics behind the 'war' between mainstream and alternative healers ... In this 'hidden history of quackery' we meet Aboriginal healers, drunken mansaughtering doctors, anda host of alternative practititoners, many of whose philosophies and methods have now been absorbed into mainstream medicine." The Age, 'Pick of the Week', January 25 2003
" ... there is much to savour here, not least the fine production values of this volume -- the joys of reading a book with the footnotes at the bottom are intense. Paradise of Quacks charts a very different story from the old one of medical triumph over superstition and prejudice, science over ignorance." Stephen Garton, Australian Historical Studies, April 2004
Publication information
Publication date: 2002
Recommended retail price: $34.95 (inc.GST)
Paperback, 240 x 155 mm, 394 pages, footnotes, bibliography, index
ISBN 1 876492 06 6
Publisher:
Macleay Press, PO Box 477, Paddington NSW 2021
Telephone 02 9360 2534 Fax 02 9331 7368
email: sales@macleaypress.com
