Volume 22, Number 21 & 22 · January 22, 1976
Gazing at Death
By Jean Starobinski, Translated by Peter France
The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception
by Michel Foucault, translated by A.M. Sheridan Smith
Pantheon, 215 pp., $2.95 (paper)
The Birth of the Clinic is a description of the changes in the language of medicine, particularly French medicine, between 1794 and 1820. It is therefore in the first place a work of history, concerned with a specific problem during a specific period. But it is also an experiment in a new way of writing the history of science, a testing ground for a radically redefined historical epistemology and methodology. Hence the double appeal of this book, which will be read not only by those who are interested in this seminal period of medical history but also by those who are dissatisfied with the traditional procedures of intellectual history and would like to see historians of ideas re-think their objectives and their methods.
Review, 3673 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |