Bad Medicine: Doctors Doing Harm Since Hippocrates

Just how much good has medicine done over the years? And how much damage does it continue to do?

The history of medicine begins with Hippocrates in the fifth century BC. Yet until the invention of antibiotics in the 1930s doctors, in general, did their patients more harm than good.

In this fascinating new look at the history of medicine, David Wootton argues that for more than 2300 years doctors have relied on their patients' misplaced faith in their ability to cure. Over and over again major...