Doc or Quack

Doc or Quack is the most comprehensive investigation to date of relations between mainstream, scientific doctoring and its imperishable Other – nonscientific, quack practice. Through a series of intricate case studies of how diseases gain medical recognition over significant periods of time, Sander L. Gilman finds affiliation as well as antagonism in the divergent ways diseases come to be delineated and understood. In each chapter he poses the question: in responding to diseases, what does it mean for policy advisers and governments to “follow the science”? His response is a profound interrogation of scientific and quack practices – the Ying and the Yang of medicine – which shows they are less polar and more interconnected than their differing philosophies, methods and remedies would suggest, with elements of each interwoven in the evidence base. In charting how medical knowledge develops, Gilman brings a powerful historical lens to the shifting and ambiguous meanings of evidence and science in medicine. * Brian Hurwitz, D’Oyly Carte Professor of Medicine and the Arts Emeritus, King’s College London *
This book could not be timelier, coming at an inflection point in popular belief about health and disease, when waning trust in the medical profession throws conventional understandings of evidence-based science up for grabs. Employing erudition along with wit, Sander L. Gilman’s opus takes the reader on a magisterial journey through centuries of radical changes in beliefs about and the practices of the healing arts. * Ruth Mandel, Professor of Anthropology, University College London *
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the messiness of science and its relationship to medical practice burst into the open. Masks or no masks? Were the vaccines safe? Where were the lines between scientific facts, “best” medical practices, and quackery? As experts’ views shifted, our lives hung in the balance. Now, one of our great historians, Sander L. Gilman, takes up these matters, diving into questions of authority, what is lost in the “translation” of science to medical practice, and the complex play of certainty and doubt that makes one caregiver trustworthy and another a danger. * George Makari, Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the DeWitt Wallace Institute of Psychiatry: History, Policy, and the Arts, Weill Cornell Medical College *
In his broad, compelling narrative, Gilman interrogates the shifting and often murky line between scientific medicine and quackery. He shows that what constitutes scientific medicine is contingent upon place, time and numerous other issues like education and licensure, research methods and type of evidence, and professional and public suspicion or trust. He illustrates how beliefs about racial and ethnic differences are entangled in defining scientific validity and physician authority. Gilman’s case studies span numerous locations, historical periods, medicinal treatments and healing modalities to bring these issues to light. In this impressive and timely history, the author demonstrates that claims of “following the science” are frequently more complicated than they seem. * Sandra M. Sufian, Professor of Health Humanities and History of Medicine and Disability, University of Illinois at Chicago *