“Ill Composed offers a fascinating inside view of what it was like to be ill in early modern England. The special focus on gender difference is an innovative approach which bears rich fruit in terms of our understanding of the social construction of health and illness. Solidly based on comprehensive archival research, the book is elegantly written.”—Sara Mendelson, co-author of ... Read moreWomen in Early Modern England, 1550-1720
Sara Mendelson “A lucidly told story which adds enormously to our understanding of the body’s history. Weisser’s extensive research takes us from the reflective diarists of the middling sort and elites to the scrappy but eloquent petitions of the begging poor. Through their stories, we gain a new understanding of the management of health, the suffering of illness, and the deep roots of the naturalisation of gender inequity.”—Laura Gowing, King’s College London
Laura Gowing “Ill Composed is a landmark in the history of the patient, gender and spirituality. It’s as though Weisser wrote this thoughtful and moving book with Samuel Pepys sitting on one shoulder and Roy Porter on the other.”—Lauren Kassell, University of Cambridge
Lauren Kassell “Ill Composed responds to the two most pressing issues in the social history of medicine, illness and patients, and offers welcome insight into the history of pain and emotion.”—Lynn Botelho, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Lynn Botelho “Weisser’s compelling study of the ways in which gender affected patients’ perceptions of illness in seventeenth-century England provides an important corrective to the majority of existing literature, which tends to concentrate on either male or female patient experience without analyzing both together. Focusing on personal sources rather than medical discourse, the book gets as close as possible to the patient’s perspective.”—Cathy McClive, Durham University
Cathy McClive Highly Commended in the Basis of Medicine Category of the 2016 British Medical Association's - Medical Book Awards.
BMA, Medical Book Awards
British Medical Association
Finalist for the 2015 Berkshire Conference of Women's Historians Book Prize.
Book Prize
Berkshire Conference of Women's Historians
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