Experiment: A child is deliberately infected with the deadly smallpox disease without his parents' informed consent. Result: The world's first vaccine. Experiment: A slave woman is forced to undergo more than thirty operations without anesthesia. Result: The beginnings of modern gynecology. Incidents like these paved the way for crucial, lifesaving medical discoveries. But they also harmed and humiliated their test subjects, many of whom did not agree to the experiments in the first place. How do doctors balance the need to test new medicines and procedures with their ethical duty to protect the rights of human subjects? Take a harrowing journey through some of history's greatest medical advances?and its most horrifying medical atrocities?to discover how human suffering has gone hand in hand with medical advancement.

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize "A panoramic and perfectly magnificent intellectual history of medicine…This is the book that delivers it all." —Sherwin Nuland, author of How We Die Hailed as "a remarkable achievement" (Boston Globe) and as "a triumph: simultaneously entertaining and instructive, witty and thought-provoking…a splendid and thoroughly engrossing book" (Los Angeles Times), Roy Porter's charting of the history of medicine affords us an opportunity as never before to assess its culture and science and its costs and benefits to mankind. Porter explores medicine's evolution against the backdrop of the wider religious, scientific, philosophical, and political beliefs of the culture in which it develops, covering ground from the diseases of the hunter-gatherers to the more recent threats of AIDS and Ebola, from the clearly defined conviction of the Hippocratic oath to the muddy ethical dilemmas of modern-day medicine. Offering up a treasure trove of historical surprises along the way, this book "has instantly become the standard single-volume work in its field" (The Lancet).

A companion book to the History Channel series, "The History of Mankind" covers the worldwide history of human beings.

A collection of original essays exploring the history of the various American religious traditions and the meaning of their many expressions The Blackwell Companion to American Religious History explores the key events, significant themes, and important movements in various religious traditions throughout the nation’s history from pre-colonization to the present day. Original essays written by leading scholars and new voices in the field discuss how religion in America has transformed over the years, explore its many expressions and meanings, and consider religion’s central role in American life. Emphasizing the integration of religion into broader cultural and historical themes, this wide-ranging volume explores the operation of religion in eras of historical change, the diversity of religious experiences, and religion’s intersections with American cultural, political, social, racial, gender, and intellectual history. Each chronologically-organized chapter focuses on a specific period or event, such as the interactions between Moravian and Indigenous communities, the origins of African-American religious institutions, Mormon settlement in Utah, social reform movements during the twentieth century, the growth of ethnic religious communities, and the rise of the Religious Right. An innovative historical genealogy of American religious traditions, the Companion: Highlights broader historical themes using clear and compelling narrative Helps teachers expose their students to the significance and variety of America’s religious past Explains new and revisionist interpretations of American religious history Surveys current and emerging historiographical trends Traces historical themes to contemporary issues surrounding civil rights and social justice movements, modern capitalism, and debates over religious liberties Making the lessons of American religious history relevant to a broad range of readers, The Blackwell Companion to American Religious History is the perfect book for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in American history courses, and a valuable resource for graduate students and scholars wanting to keep pace with current historiographical trends and recent developments in the field.

In 1984 I took Sannyas with Osho, a contemporary mystic, and soon after was introduced to NLP and Hypnotherapy. Osho gave me a breadth and depth of knowledge about religion, and an experience of meditation that I would never have been able to find through normal channels. Most importantly, Osho taught me not to rely upon borrowed knowledge but to make your own existential inquiry into truth – to challenge everything for the ultimate Truth – and Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Hypnosis gave me the tools to do just that. I have attempted to present to the reader a new way of understanding faith healing, placebo, mind-body healing, conscious mind, unconscious mind, ego, religion, spirituality, channelling, angels, god, devil, heaven, hell, near death experiences, spiritual experiences and enlightenment – from the framework of NLP, hypnosis, meditation and the science of flow states. The book was written over a period of eight years which gave me time to continually update the notes until it takes the form that you see it now. It explores the concept that we are the meaning maker – that we are the one who give meaning to events that occur in the world; we are the one who gives meaning to the experiences that we have, and to the experiences that others have – meaning is not inherent in the event – we create the meaning – we are the meaning maker. Sometimes that meaning serves us, sometimes it does not. Sometimes that meaning serves us but does not serve others. The book explores the process of giving prestige, of adulation and worship. Of how we may be too quick to create fiction and fantasy based upon ideas that we hold in mind. Of how we may be looking in the wrong direction to find God. However, this book is not a book about God – it is a book based upon my own existential experience. I wrote the book, in part because it maps out my own personal inquiry into truth – and because I want to help wake people up to themselves such that they might realise their true potential – whether you call that Self Realisation, Enlightenment or Self Actualisation. “The unconscious mind is like a silent partner, that is always present, knows your every thought and your every desire, has the power to affect both body and mind at the core of your being, and is always ready to help you, as long as you should just communicate in the right way. Hmm... sounds much like God.” Abby Eagle

This “immensely stimulating story of true crime down the ages” tells the history of human violence, from Peking Man to the Mafia (The Times, London). This landmark work offers a completely new approach to the history and psychology of human violence. Its sweep is broad, its research meticulous and detailed. Colin Wilson explores the bloodthirsty sadism of the ancient Assyrians and the mass slaughter by the armies led by Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Ivan the Terrible, and Vlad the Impaler. He delves into modern history, exploring the genocides practiced by Stalin and Hitler. He then takes a chilling look into the sex crimes and mass murders that have become symbols of the neuroses and intensity of modern life. With breathtaking audacity and stunning insight, Wilson puts criminality firmly in a wide, illuminating historical context. “A work of massive energy, compulsively readable, splendidly informative . . . it establishes Wilson in a European tradition of thought that includes H. G. Wells, Sartre and Shaw.” —Time Out London “A tremendous resource for crime buffs as well as a challenging exposition for some of the more subtle criminological thinking of our time.” —Kirkus Reviews

Experiment: A child is deliberately infected with the deadly smallpox disease without his parents' informed consent. Result: The world's first vaccine. Experiment: A slave woman is forced to undergo more than thirty operations without anesthesia. Result: The beginnings of modern gynecology. Incidents like these paved the way for crucial, lifesaving medical discoveries. But they also harmed and humiliated their test subjects. How do doctors balance the need to test new medicines and procedures with their ethical duty to protect the rights of humans? Take a journey through some of history's greatest medical advances—and its most horrifying medical atrocities—to discover how human suffering has gone hand in hand with medical advancement.