The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine

“This book is not for the squeamish. It’s rather visceral. It’s about Victorian surgery and it’s fascinating. I’m very intrigued and interested in learning about the history of surgery, and especially about Joseph Lister, the father of antiseptic. He was a real pioneer, working on the margins between science and medicine, and doing wonderful things to move us on. These early surgeons were operating on the dividing line between life and death—and mostly death, it would appear. This young scholar has a very lively style. She has used a lot of primary material, and made the work accessible, perhaps too accessible at times, for the general reader.” Read more...

The Best History Books: the 2018 Wolfson Prize shortlist

Carole Hillenbrand, Theologians & Historians of Religion