About the Book
The Middle Ages covers a span of roughly one thousand years, and through that time people were subject to an array of not only deadly diseases but deplorable living conditions. It was a time when cures for sickness were often worse than the illness itself mixed with a population of people who lacked any real understanding of sanitation and cleanliness.
Dive in to the history of medieval medicine, and learn how the foundations of healing were built on the knowledge of ancient Greek and Roman philosophers. Understand how your social status would have affected medical care, and how the domination of the Catholic Church was the basis of an abundant amount of fear regarding life and death.
We are given an intimate look into the devastating time of the Black Death, along with other horrific ailments that would have easily claimed a life in the Middle Ages. Delve inside the minds of the physicians and barbersurgeons for a better understanding of how they approached healing.
As well as diving into the treacherous waters of medieval childbirth, Cummings looks into the birth of hospitals and the care for the insane. We are also taken directly to the battlefield and given the gruesome details of medieval warfare and its repercussions. Examine the horrors of the torture chamber and execution as a means of justice.
Medicine in the Middle Ages is a fascinating walk through time to give us a better understanding of such a perilous part of history.
192 pages (hardcover)
Publishing on December 31, 2021
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This book was sent by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I don’t know a whole lot about medicine in the Middle Ages. I’ve read a lot of nonfiction books about various plagues that swept through numerous regions during the time period we would define as “Middle Ages” but aside from that, and information gleaned in those books, I don’t know much. However, I want to know more. I find myself, when I read books set in this time period, often wondering how exactly people survived. When I saw Medicine in the Middle Ages, I knew it was a book I had to read, and so I jumped on it.
The first thing I was concerned about is accessibility. Anyone who reads a good amount of nonfiction knows that sometimes authors probably think they are being accessible to the every reader, but in the end they are anything but. I didn’t want a book that read like a textbook, and I knew with my limited medical background, I’d need something I could easily sink into and understand, and I will say I found all of that here. Medicine in the Middle Ages might have a somewhat dry title, but the text inside the book is anything but. Cummings does a fantastic job weaving together history and scientific understanding to give readers a well-rounded overview of the topic, of the beliefs in that day and age, where they came from, and how they influenced medical understanding.
Cummings spends the first part of the book talking more about how life was lived in the Middle Ages, rather than discussing medicine itself. This part of the book fascinated me, and I discovered pretty early on that it was essential to start the book out this way. You have to understand how people lived to be able to fully appreciate how they interacted with the world when something like a plague swept through. Once this foundation is laid, however, the author immerses herself in her subject matter. Due to the fact that we have some firm foundation upon which to explore this topic, thanks to the first chunk of the book, the information about medicine meant more to me, because I had context with which to address it.
The Middle Ages itself is a period of time spanning about 1,000 years, and things change in that amount of time. Cummings spans the era, touching on important moments and historical events, giving some of them an intimate study while glossing over ones that might not be, perhaps, as important to the reader’s general understanding. The Black Death, an infamous plague that wiped out a good chunk of Europe’s population, is covered in detail, and though I have read numerous books on the subject already, I did learn some new things here. She also does not shy away from matters like childbirth, hospitals, and insane asylums, which were things I was really hoping to find in this book, and aren’t very often covered in other books detailing matters in this time period.
Context was something I appreciated throughout. Cummings doesn’t just throw readers into the mire, she leads them through. We read about these events from a 21st century standpoint, which is often why I think, “How on earth did anyone survive back then?” We don’t often read about these things from the standpoint of someone living there, at that time. Cummings has a way of peeling back the layers between us and them, and showing readers not just what people practiced in the way of medicine, but why they did it, and their current understanding of what they were doing and why. This allows readers to better grasp what they got right, and what they got wrong, and how well (or poorly) they were doing based on the information they had at the time. From women’s healthcare to war wounds to plagues, each aspect is covered compassionately, and with an obvious understanding for not just why people did what they did, but their understanding of what they were doing as well.
Ultimately, I learned a lot more from this book than I expected, and not all of it was about medicine. Due to Cumming’s knack for weaving history and science together into such a smooth narrative, I learned a lot of things about history that I didn’t know already as well. In fact, I went into this book with a general sense of curiosity, and left it with a list as long as my arm of things to google and learn more about. That’s always the sign of a good nonfiction book, in my estimation. They don’t just inform the reader, but they make the reader want to know more, and that’s what this did. Perhaps if I did have one drawback, it’s that this book isn’t terribly long. Clocking in at just under 200 pages, there isn’t a lot of room here for the author to cover topics in extensive detail, and so you might just want to make a list of things to further research, as some of the topics covered felt more like vignettes.
Accessibly written with a knack for context and an ability to present complex topics in easily digestible bites, Medicine in the Middle Ages was a fascinating read. I highly recommend it to any nonfiction reader who enjoys books that seamlessly blend science and history.
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