First published 2017
The Butchering Art transports readers to the grim operating theaters of 19th-century London, where renowned surgeon Joseph Lister waged a lonely crusade against the infection and death that haunted the medical profession. In an era of squalid hospitals and ineffective treatments, Lister dared to question the status quo - and paid a steep personal price for his radical theories on antisepsis. Lindsey Fitzharris's vivid account reveals how Lister's quest to reduce patient mortality transformed the brutal world of Victorian surgery and laid the groundwork for modern medicine as we know it.
Genres: biography, history, medical, history-of-medicine, 19th-century, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: lone-crusader, radical-theories
Setting: Great Britain
Period: 19th century
304 pages · Hardcover · Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux