Quackery
A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything
Ratings25
Average rating3.5
I'm waffling hard on my rating of this book. It's a very generous 4 stars, more like a 3.5 if I were being honest.
Divided into sections covering different aspects of medical history, this book covers a huge range of ground on the craziest things used as medicine over the course of history. There's no FDA regulating anything here, just unadulterated ingestion of heavy metals, literal snake oils, and poisons, the leeching, lobotomizing, and burning of the human body, and so many different ways to torture–I mean, cure, what ails you. It's a chilling walk down the road that got us to today's realm of regulated antibiotics, medicines, sanitization, and sterile medical procedures.
While all of this was really interesting to me in the beginning, the book covers so much ground that you'll get a deep dive on some things and then other, equally interesting sounding things get glossed over. Additionally, the author uses humor to keep things light (because, really, the book would be incredibly depressing without it), but I thought it was forced, stretched, and otherwise cringe-inducing in some places.
A super interesting book if you're looking for a litany of medical history factoids, maybe pass on it if you're looking for detailed information though. Or use it as a jumping off point to other things, like I probably am. Also, if you're squeamish or otherwise don't want to read about genitalia problems or cures, maybe give this a pass.
A good overview of some of the weirdest and most confusing ways that we've been trying to cure things over the lifetime of humanity. Thank goodness for the scientific method!
This book is written in a really casual and understandable style, a bit dorky and jokey. I think it's good for an overview, and anything that I wanted more in-depth information on I looked up later.
3.5 stars.
It got to be more of the same at the end, but there were interesting bits along the way.
If you like the podcast Sawbones you'll probably like this book. All those good medical history facts and stories with a few jokes thrown in.