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Asthma: The Biography
Mark Jackson
272 pages
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15 halftone illustrations
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196x129mm
978-0-19-923795-1
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Hardback
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08 October 2009
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- Fascinating mixture of cultural history and the development of medicine
- Leading historian author
- Asthma is a familiar and rapidly growing disease today, due to reach epidemic proportions, so highly topical, but its history is not familiar
- Begins with the case history of a famous sufferer - Marcel Proust
- Part of the Biographies of Diseases series, edited by William and Helen Bynum
Asthma is a familiar and growing disease today, but its story goes back to the ancient world, as we know from accounts in ancient texts from China, India, Greece and Rome. It was treated with acupuncture and Ayurveda.
As Western medicine developed, the nature of asthma became clearer, and its basis in the lungs recognized. But cultural perceptions of the disease shifted too. By the 18th century, with recognition that the disease was centred on the lungs, the idea of environmental triggers such as dust and smoke first became recognized. And with that, asthma also became identified as a disease of artisans. Things changed again in the 19th century, as medical understanding grew with the advent of the stethoscope and new techniques
such as percussion of the chest. New treatments included the promotion of mountain spas, for asthma now rose in social status, and became associated with the upper classes and the literati. For Marcel Proust and Charles Dickens, asthma shaped their lives and their creativity.
From early in the 20th century, the idea of asthma as an allergic disease became established, and the search for environmental causes was on. Hay fever was closely linked, and pharmaceutical companies began to make antihistamines, anti-inflammatories and bronchodilators. Asthma sufferers were warned to beware of pets, simplify their furnishings, and take holidays by the sea far from pollens. But a newly emerging concept was that attacks could be triggered by stress and psychological factors.
With musicians such as Schoenberg and Berg as celebrity sufferers, the idea of asthma as an élite disease persisted.
In recent years, attitudes have changed again, as incidences of asthma grew dramatically across the world, especially among the young. The disease has now become closely linked to modern lifestyles and the many products of civilization. The battle against house-dust mites began, and whole new lines of anti-allergenic products and foods were launched - asthma has proved highly lucrative over the years. But the disease has remained fashionable, even becoming the theme of several pop songs.
Asthma: the biography is part of the Oxford series, Biographies of Diseases, edited by William and Helen Bynum. In each individual volume an
expert historian of medicine tells the story of a particular disease or condition throughout history - not only in terms of growing medical understanding of its nature and cure, but also shifting social and cultural attitudes, and changes in the meaning of the name of the disease itself.Readership: Readers of popular science and those interested in the history of medicine and science
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Mark Jackson, Centre for Medical History, University of Exeter
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"Jackson inserts a personal touch by commenting on his asthmatic son, while remaining equally thorough about asthma's epidemiology... and future." - George Rousseau, Times Literary Supplement 25/06/2010 "These four 'Biographies' of diseases go far beyond questions of biology or medical practice; they talk politics, sex and class, faith." - The Scotsman "The stories they tell are often fascinating and alarming - pitched somewhere between farce, genius, horror and a lab report." - The Scotsman "The notion of an ailment having a birth, a lifespan, and - ideally - a demise...is an illuminating and useful concept." - Wendy Moore, British Medical Journal
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Prologue
1: Classical asthma
2: The anatomy of asthma
3: Asthma and allergy
4: Modern asthma
Epilogue
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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