In this innovative analytical account of the place of emotion and embodiment in nineteenth-century British surgery, Michael Brown examines the changing emotional dynamics of surgical culture for both surgeons and patients from the pre-anaesthetic era through the introduction of anaesthesia and antisepsis techniques. Drawing on diverse archival and published sources, Brown explores how an emotional regime of Romantic sensibility, in which emotions played a central role in the practice and experience of surgery, was superseded by one of scientific modernity, in which the emotions of both patient and practitioner were increasingly marginalised. Demonstrating that the cultures of contemporary surgery and the emotional identities of its practitioners have their origins in the cultural and conceptual upheavals of the later nineteenth century, this book challenges us to question our perception of the pre-anaesthetic period as an era of bloody brutality and casual cruelty. This title is also available as open access.

‘Pain and compassion, sentiment and science: these are the themes that Michael Brown explores in his history of surgery. By fusing the history of emotions with the history of medicine, Brown sheds new light on clinical interactions. The book is an original and enthralling account of the emotional lives of surgeons.'

Joanna Bourke - Birkbeck, University of London

‘Based on a wealth of new and relevant sources, this book analyses the story of a key period in the history of modern surgery in a novel and original way. In combining the history of emotions with the history of surgery it is a model of what professional history of medicine can and should do.'

Thomas Schlich - McGill University