Bourke has done a fine job of detailing the story of pain and the folly it reveals. Sadly, the folly has not gone away.
A scholarly treatise on how pain and those who suffer from it have been regarded over the past three centuries in the Western world.
Bourke (History/Birkbeck Coll., Univ. of London; What It Means to Be Human: Historical Reflections from the 1800s to the Present, 2011, etc.) claims that pain should not be considered an objective entity but rather as a unique part of a person’s being. As such, there is always a context, history or cultural milieu that colors the individual’s unique experience. That setting is her focus as she plumbs the literature and includes copious quotes from philosophers and practitioners, preachers and patients. It is infuriating to read that the Christian position was that pain was punishment for original sin (plus others you accrued) and that you had better grin and bear it if you hoped for a better hereafter. Or how about the phrenologists’ discovery of a “destruction” bump, which gave them the power to amputate mercilessly rather than show any hesitancy born of compassion in the pre-anesthetic days? Attitudes changed with the advent of ether and chloroform in the 1840s, but what about class, education or gender? Women were considered more sensitive and emotional, while the lower classes and blacks were considered inferior and less sensitive to pain (a great comfort to slave owners). It was not until the 1960s that medical practice came around to recognizing that newborns and infants could feel pain. To be sure, there were always voices raised against conventional beliefs, and there have been critical advances in the neuroscience of pain. Bourke charts this progress, but the truth remains: Medical education on pain is severely deficient, and race and gender issues continue to prevail. Patients themselves can be their own worst enemies, fearing addiction or condemnation as a complainer.
Bourke has done a fine job of detailing the story of pain and the folly it reveals. Sadly, the folly has not gone away.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-19-968942-2
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
A useful reevaluation of the 19th-century bureaucrat who created modern Paris. Most students of French history are taught that Georges-Eugäne Haussmann (180991) rammed wide, straight boulevards through the narrow, winding passageways of Old Paris at the behest of Emperor Louis NapolÇon to ensure that the streets could never again be barricaded during a popular uprising. Jordan (History/Univ. of Illinois, Chicago) replaces that glib assertion with a deeper understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of the dramatic changes Haussmann wrought on the Parisian cityscape during his tenure as prefect of the Seine from 1853 to 1870. His thorough account of Haussmann's projects shows that, on the one hand, the prefect brought light, air, and proper sanitation to a dangerously overcrowded city whose design and services had not maintained pace with its growth; on the other hand, the order, harmony, and free circulation of traffic Haussmann sought were achieved at the cost of destroying some beloved landmarks, most controversially a portion of the Luxembourg Gardens. In addition, the prefect's assiduous encouragement of luxury housing drove the working class from the city, which became largely a playground for the haute bourgeoisie. Detailing Haussmann's ruthless methods (expropriation of property, methodical demolition, and devious deficit financing), the author retains an appreciation for his achievement: ``The uniformity of aesthetics and scale...gave the city harmony and proportion, qualities all too lacking in most urban landscapes.'' He paints a fair if not especially sympathetic portrait of Haussmann as a 19th-century Robert Moses: arrogant, contemptuous of democratic processes, a fervent believer in the power of disinterested bureaucrats to create a better public life. The text lacks elegance: The oblique background material will confuse those not familiar with French history, and points are made with unnecessary repetitiousness. Nonetheless, a stimulating look at the modern world's first- -and arguably still best—urban renewal project; a must for anyone interested in urban planning.
Pub Date: Jan. 25, 1995
ISBN: 0-02-916531-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1994
This graphic account of the horrors of the Chinese Cultural Revolution will put to rest any remaining romantic notions about Chairman Mao. First published in France in 1989, the book recounts the author's life in a ``bourgeois'' family (her grandfather was a banker, her parents actors). Born just days before Mao declared the Cultural Revolution in 1966, Niu-Niu was four when armed Red Guards invaded her home and took her parents to a reeducation camp as punishment for their unspecified ``counter-revolutionary'' crimes; she did not see them again for eight years. The girl found refuge with her grandparents, who were the subject of local Communist Party criticism meetings that took the form of beatings. Her grandfather was finally beaten to death, and young Niu-Niu was derided in her neighborhood and at school as the ``child of criminals.'' She and her grandmother had so little food that the child took to stealing to supplement their diet. The outcast Niu- Niu became a member of a children's gang involved in a wide array of petty theft; she was continually in trouble with the authorities. Once her parents were allowed to return home after the official end of the Cultural Revolution, she shaped up long enough to pass her exams and enter a Beijing university specializing in film production. Niu-Niu's constant rebellion against the school's efforts to make students conform to the Communist Party line ultimately led to her expulsion. Her perseverance and courage in the face of tyranny will overwhelm readers. The book ends with her departure from China for a new life in France with a French citizen she later married. (They are now divorced.) The excellent translation does justice to this remarkable story. An important depiction of recent Chinese history too quickly being forgotten in the rush to seek trade with China.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-89733-410-8
Page Count: 285
Publisher: Academy Chicago
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1994
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