Medical Power and Social Knowledge

'This is the best general text on medical sociology that I have read' - Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology

'This is a superb textbook. The material on history and the interactional aspects of illness is outstanding...because of its logic and clarity.... should be required reading for all medical schools' - The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease

'I am aware of no other work that so elegantly situates the sociology of the body, of medicine, and of health, within the context of power and social class. Turner's book represents a brilliant continuation of the ideas of Michel Foucault in this exciting new field' - Edward Shorter, Professor of History, University of Toronto

`Turner provides an interesting account of the way disease and illness have taken on particular meanings in a secular society.... there are many insights in this book that make it worth reading' - Sociology of Health and Illness

`Bryan Turner's book ...is a serious attempt to write about medicine from a major interpreter of the classics who puts the fumbling of most of our indigenous efforts in a true perspective... it is full of neat and unexpected insights' - Robert Dingwall, Theory, Culture & Society

`Bryan Turner's excellent study will undoubtedly prove to be of great value not only to researchers, teachers and students interested in the field of medical sociology but also to those working in the respective areas of the history of medicine and modern social theory.

Turner has become one of the most prolific of social researchers and his knowledge of classical and modern social thought is truly encylopaedic. In this new study...an analysis is offered of the individual experience of illness, the emergence and development of medical institutions and professions, and the societal organization of health-care systems.

The central thesis, that `diseases are...socially constructed products of cultural and social arrangements', is outlined in a lucid and stimulating discussion of an extensive range of theoretical ideas, complemented by historical documentation and detail. Medical Power and Social Knowledge not only delineates the key analytic elements necessary for a social and cultural analysis of medicine but in addition provides a powerful analysis of the centrality of medical knowledge, practice and institutions in modern society' - Barry Smart, Sheffield University

`Penetrating, original and comprehensive, Turner's survey is easily our best exploration of the theoretical issues posed by medical sociology' -- Roy Porter, The Wellcome Institute

`as always with Bryan Turner's books, this one is well written and contains a great deal of scholarly and stimulating debate' -- Medical Sociology News

`A valuable introduction to medical sociology ... the author packs an enormous amount of wide ranging material into a small compass. Very strongly recommended' - Journal of the Institute of Health Education

`Turner offers a crisp, condensed and up to date digest of the main topics within medical sociology... Turner also contributes some more original discussion of the relationship between sickness, class and capitalism... this book can be recommended as the best brief introduction to medical sociology.' -- Medical History, January 1988

`Turner's book is a wide-ranging and thorough introduction to medical sociology.it draws on a great variety of sources and grapples with the gamutt of mainstream theoretical approaches. The major sections cover concepts of disease and sickness....and the social organixation of medical power. Teachers of the subject are likely to find this as useful as a volume as any on their shelf. Others will benefit from dipping into it; there is a good index and nearly 600 references. As Turner points out at the start, medical sociology has been a late developer, since none of sociologys founding fathers took much of an interest in it. This book is one of the signs of medical sociology's coming of age. -- Sociology Vol22 N0 2 May 1988

'An intelligent work' -- Media Information Australia

`thought-provoking' -- Metascience, Vol 6 No 2, 1988

'written with intelligence and balance... The brevity of the text and its mild provocativeness enable it to be used as core reading around which to organize discussions, debates, and wide-ranging library work.' -- Contemporary Sociology

`the direction of this book is extremely desirable... Turner's book brings a rich background of sociological and historical scholarship unusual in writers in this field... a stimulating discussion.' -- Community Health Studies