Flesh in the Age of Reason: The Modern Foundations of Body and Soul by Roy Porter

Flesh in the Age of Reason: The Modern Foundations of Body and Soul by Roy Porter

The culmination of a lifelong interest in the metaphysics of the body by the premier social historian of medicine. How did we come to a modern understanding of our bodies and souls? What were the breakthroughs that allowed human beings to see themselves in a new light? Starting with the revolutionary ideas of the Renaissance that challenged the sense of the body as a corrupt vessel for the soul, Roy Porter goes on to chart howthrough figures as diverse as Locke, Swift, Johnson, and Gibbonideas about medicine, politics, and religion fundamentally changed notions of self. He shows how the body moved center stage in the eighteenth century, writing brilliantly on the ways in which men and women flaunted, decorated, tanned, and dieted themselves: activities that we find familiar but that a Puritan divine would have considered Satanic. And Porter explores how, at the end of the century, the human soul took on a new significance in the works of Godwin, Blake, and Byron.

Roy Porter (1946—2002) was professor of the history of medicine at University College, London. His books include Blood and Guts, The Creation of the Modern World, Flesh in the Age of Reason, and The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780393050752
ISBN 10	0393050750
Title	Flesh in the Age of Reason: The Modern Foundations of Body and Soul
Author	Roy Porter
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	WW Norton & Co
Year published	2004-01-20
Number of pages	592
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.