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Behind the Book: Science and Religion
Each year I teach an upper-division course on the History of Science and Religion. The course draws students from a variety of religious and nonreligious backgrounds, most of whom are studying science. Year after year I find that my students hold the same...
Five Things That Will Surprise You about Civil War Medicine
I once heard historian Drew Gilpin Faust tell an audience at the National Humanities Center that at least one book about the Civil War had appeared for every day since Lee surrendered at Appomattox. That’s a major challenge for the historian who seeks to say...
A Good Story, but Was It Accurate?
We hear a lot about fake news but what about fake history? How do we know that everything in history books is based on fact? We don’t. That is why history is always open to revision, and doing it requires a critical mind and the skills of a detective. I am a...
The Distractions and Implications of Biomedical Promise
Gene therapy has been on the horizon as the next great medical breakthrough in curing disease for half a century now. Every time a new genetic mapping or engineering approach is developed, the promise of gene therapy seems to finally be within reach. This was...
How to Become an Expert
I have heard that if you wish to be considered an expert on a subject, you first need to write a book about it. I wrote Disease and Discovery, first published in 1987, not so much because I wanted to be considered an expert, but because I felt a rather urgent...
Diagnosing Mary Lincoln
Mary Lincoln has been a mystery for more than 150 years. Irritable as the wife of Abraham Lincoln in Illinois, erratic as First Lady, and frankly psychotic as a widow, she died at the young age of 63 after years of unusual physical symptoms and progressively...
An Examination of Diagnosis
At first glance, medical diagnosis might seem like a cut-and-dry topic. However, much more goes into this aspect of medical practice than most people think. Annemarie Jutel, co-editor of Social Issues in Diagnosis and author of Putting a Name to It, recently...
Spring books preview: history & culture
We’re excited about the books we’ll be publishing this spring—and we're pleased to start off the new year with a series of posts that highlight our forthcoming titles. Be sure to check out the online edition of JHUP’s entire Spring 2016 catalog, and remember...