Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2015 - Science & Technology — History of Science & Technology — Women's & Gender Studies

Scholars of early modern medicine have paid insufficient attention to gender, and scholars of gender have failed to look at gender issues surrounding sickness and the body in that period.  Weisser (history, Univ. of Massachusetts, Boston) contributes to both these areas with Ill Composed:Sickness, Gender, and Belief in Early Modern England.  She argues that 17th-century men and women perceived illness in gendered ways: whereas women looked to others as models of suffering and attributed their own illness to negative and positive relationships, mens perception of illness was rarely influenced by the thoughts of or interactions with others.  That said, Weisser acknowledges that perceptions of illness were not shaped solely by gender, and she also considers the interaction of personal beliefs, actions, and expectations to show that patients drew on coexisting causes and explanations of illness.  Weisser begins with an overview of early modern medicine, focusing on the relationship between doctors and patients from a healers perspective.  The chapters that follow trace the progression of illness from a patients viewpoint.  Weisser derives much of her evidence from self-writingincluding diaries, letters, account books, and healers' notesbut she also takes into consideration writings intended for wide audiences, e.g., medical and devotional literature.  This is a beautifully written and argued book.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above.