Thomas Hodgkin

by Louis R. Rosenfeld

Overview

Hodgkin's Disease. Most people have heard of it. Yet, very few know Thomas Hodgkin, the man, or the reason the disease was named after him. Dr. Louis Rosenfeld changes that in his searching biography of one of the most significant humanitarians of his time. His in-depth, chronological history unfolds against the backdrop of the social, medical, scientific, and educational changes that were occurring around Thomas Hodgkin in the nineteenth century.

Thomas Hodgkin led a life dedicated to the betterment of those around him. First and foremost a dedicated Quaker, his religious fervor ran deep and was apparent in everything he did. He actively participated in the leading social reform movements of his time. He was committed to medical practice reform and education. His opposition to slavery and the slave trade was so strong that he worked to develop settlements in Africa for freed slaves. His strong commitment to social justice for underdeveloped peoples found him also fighting for American Indian's rights when they were threatened by the British.

Thomas Hodgkin spent his life in the relentless pursuit of equality for the underprivileged and oppressed. Despite the fact that his integrity and consistency in human rights issues were anathema to the conventional wisdom of his time, he managed to make a difference. Dr. Rosenfeld captures the true Thomas Hodgkin like no one else ever has in this extraordinary biography.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780819186331
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	12/26/1992
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	6.32(w) x 9.28(h) x 1.19(d)

About the Author

Louis Rosenfeld, Ph.D. is an associate professor of pathology at New York University Medical Center.

Editorial Reviews

Hodgkin's (1798-1866) fame as the discoverer of the disease that bears his name has obscured the English Quaker physician's accomplishments as a scholar, educator, ethnologist and social reformer--particularly as the ``father and founder of the Aborigines' Protection Society,'' which worked to end exported abuses of native peoples around the British Empire. With unobtrusive erudition, Rosenfeld, associate professor of pathology at New York University, vividly portrays Hodgkin's exemplary though idiosyncratic character and multiple activities in an era of economic and sociological ferment that extended to medical practice and education. After years at London's renowned Guy's Hospital as a ``morbid'' (pathologic) anatomist, he was forced to resign by an elitist, regressive medical establishment that disapproved of his proposed reforms, both social and medical. Deprived of research resources, he continued his humanitarian campaigns until his death in 1866 in Jaffa, where he had gone to work on behalf of poor and persecuted Jews. Photos. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Hodgkin (1798-1866) was a man of many passions: medicine, religion, and social activism. Famous for his discovery of the disease now named after him, he spent a large portion of his career as director of the museum of anatomical specimens and lecturer on morbid anatomy at Guy's Hospital in London. Hodgkin, a Quaker, divided his time between research and activism, especially for aboriginal rights. He also actively opposed slavery, urged the instruction of the poor in preventive medicine, formed sanitary programs, and engaged in many other social activities. This volume joins two other recent biographies of Hodgkin that are also very readable and written for nonacademics: Michael Rose's Curator of the Dead (Peter Owen, 1981), and Amalie and Edward Kass's Perfecting the World (HBJ, 1988). This is recommended for all general history and biography collections.-- Eric D. Albright, Galter Health Sciences Lib., Northwestern Univ., Chicago

Library Journal

This short but well-documented biography takes up the medical and social activities of a nineteenth-century English physician. Known today only for "his" disease, aka lymphadenoma, Hodgkin was a multifaceted individual. A staunch Quaker, he undertook medical training, practice, and investigative work as a duty to humankind. He also spoke and wrote at length against slavery and in behalf of minorities (Indians in North America, Maoris in New Zealand, and black Africans wherever they might be). Hodgkin's pioneering work in pathological anatomy and aortic insufficiency increased medical knowledge and improved medical practice. His efforts at teaching and hospital work, however, were hampered by his lack of diplomacy and by political favoritism. In his last years, Hodgkin became a traveling companion to Sir Moses Montefiore and his wife. Rosenfeld's book will help to make Hodgkin and his work better known, but libraries and individuals who have Amalie and Edward Kass' scholarly and readable "Perfecting the World: The Life and Times of Thomas Hodgkin" (1988) will not need it.

William Beatty