A History of Military Medicine

Subjects:

• Health/Medicine » Health/Medicine (General)
• Military Studies » Military History

Reviews:

• Throughout history the state of medical knowledge has had an effect on the course of warfare, and it has in turn been influenced by medical advances brought about by resources marshaled to mount military campaigns. Gabriel and Metz provide a two-volume chronological treatment of the history of military medicine from its origins to the present. Volume 1 covers the period beginning with Sumer (4000 B.C.) and ends with the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453. Volume 2 begins with the Renaissance and ends with the Vietnam War. The first two chapters of each volume give an overall analysis of military medical problems of the rest of the volume and are quite interesting. Remaining chapters begin with an overview of the state of general medicine followed by that of military medicine of the period covered. . . . It is . . . informative, clearly written, and, interesting reading.
  —Choice
• Perceptive and gracefully written. . . . A superb history book.
  —New England Journal of Medicine
• Another frequently overlooked component of military history is the medical dimension, considering that until recently disease usually killed more soldiers than battle. A useful corrective is th[is] two-volume set by Gabriel and Metz. . . . The discussion is wide-ranging, and it includes the evolution of treatment for disease and injury, which changed (not always for the better) as the nature of weapons and warfare changed. At times frightening, at times heroic, the story is always well told. Because of its comprehensiveness, this is now a standard work of military history.
  —Armed Forces Journal International

• Endorsement From
  John Keegan
  
  
  from the Foreword: It is this history [of military medicine], so central to that of warfare, that Richard Gabriel and Karen Metz survey in this invaluable book. . . . No one has hitherto attempted . . . a comprehensive treatment of the subject from the earliest times to the present day and from all civilizations. To have written such a study is Gabriel's and Metz's achievement. It will become an automatic source of reference for all military historians, for medical historians interested in the parallel development of military and civil medicine, and for anyone else concerned with this aspect of warfare through the ages.

Table of Contents:

• Volume I; Introduction
• War and Medicine in the Ancient World
• Ancient Sumer, 4000 to 2000 B.C.
• Egypt, 3500 to 350 B.C.
• Assyria, 911 to 612 B.C.
• Israel, Persia, and India, 1300 to 100 B.C.
• Greece, 500 to 147 B.C.
• Rome, 753 B.C to 478 A.D.
• Barbarians, Byzantines, Islam, and the Middle Ages
• Military Medicine in the Ancient World
• Selected Bibliography
• Index
• Volume II; Introduction
• Development of Modern War, 1453 to the Twentieth Century
• The Renaissance: Rebirth of the Empirical Spirit
• The Seventeenth Century: Gunpowder and Slaughter
• Eighteenth Century: The Age of Amputation
• Nineteenth Century: The First Effective Military Medical Care Systems
• Twentieth Century: The Rise of Modern Military Medicine
• The Emergence of Military Medicine
• Bibliography
• Index