In her book Médecine(s) et santé: Une petite histoire globale – 19e et 20e siècles, Laurence Monnais draws a very vivid account of the history of ‘modern medicine’ since the beginning of the nineteenth century. In less than 250 pages, the historian, currently holder of the Canada Research Chair in pluralism in healthcare at the University of Montreal, offers readers a particularly timely and well-thought out handbook in tune with the latest international medical history research. The book fills a gap in the French-speaking bibliography as it proposes a skilful synthesis at the crossroads of the social history of medicine, the history of science and technology and a wide range of subaltern studies chose from both English and French bibliographies.
In three parts (‘La fabrique d’un système medical’; ‘La médecine moderne à la rencontre des femmes, des fous et …des démunis’; ‘La biomédecine, ses avatars et ses détracteurs’) each composed of three chapters, Monnais follows both a chronological and thematic scheme starting at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Three main ideas structure the story: the construction and transformation of so-called ‘modern medicine’, which became known as bio-medicine after the Second World War; a critical assessment of its global propagation through colonial power since the nineteenth century; and a continuous discussion over the place taken by medicine and science and its representatives in the field of health from an individual and population perspective, which highlights for instance the never-ending chauvinist process of otherness definition (targeting both groups and individuals, for instance emotional women, immature colonial subjects or dangerous mad people; and behaviours, for instance under the categories of risk factors).
The constant discussion of medical and cultural categorisations makes the book very informative and engaging. The strength of the narrative comes from the various actors and scales integrated in the chronological periodisation: it avoids a linear explanation and presents a very sensitive account of acceleration and slowdowns, and focuses on transformations rather than genealogical understanding from the present. Very few factual mistakes can be found (on the European mortality figures for Spanish influenza, p. 163: according to Johnson and Mueller (2002), the overall estimation is more like 2.3 million deaths) or interpretative debate raised (the account of the 1937 Bandoeng’s Conference may be a bit optimistic in comparison to Randall M. Packard’s, p. 154). Perhaps the cryptic title and the subtitle are a bit misleading: rather than a ‘short global history’ the book presents an entangled history (‘histoire croisée’) which mirrors and highlights global trends in specific areas. This is not a book on global health history – even a short one – in the manner of the recently published history of global health by Randall M. Packard.Footnote 1
The audience targeted by the book is wider than historians and students in the fields of the history of medicine, public health or infectious diseases. According to the author, it aims to reach a medical readership, both readers with established careers and those in training. Monnais’s explicit goal is to offer a historical and thus political understanding of the history of medicine, which often appears through the voice of Monnais in the narrative. In the international context of the recent rise of Medical Humanities in medical faculties and public discourse, often judged to be synonymous with the victory of ethics over medical history, this book is also a plea in favour of medical history. The lively writing and contemporary popular references (e.g. to Downton Abbey on p. 94) serve the purpose of engaging with non-specialists while maintaining a decent level of complexity.
In the francophone context, the scope is almost unique. In comparison to the English-speaking bibliography in which handbooks, companions and introductions to history of medicine are numerous, very few such books are available and accessible in the field of history of medicine in French. The most successful titles only partly tackle the issue of medical history (such as Jean-Paul Gaudillière’s introduction to history of medical scienceFootnote 2 or Patrice Bourdelais’s history of public health in western countriesFootnote 3 ). In fact, Monnais’s handbook is very similar, in its scope and even its very concise way of writing, to Olivier Faure’s very stimulating social history of medicine in the nineteenth century France.Footnote 4 But Monnais’s study reaches farther, covering the last two centuries with a transnational scope. Monnais adds her own questions and sensitivities, rooted in her research interests and her professional environment in Canada. Her thesis entitled ‘Colonial medicine, health practices, and society: The medicalization of French Indochina’ was devoted to the history of medicine in colonial South-East Asia. On numerous occasions she presents cases taken from non-western contexts. If the core of the argument devoted to modern western medicine gives great importance to transatlantic states and relations, multiple examples are chosen from non-western countries to balance and question medicalization processes through the history of alternative medicine. A very good, short and informative introduction heads each chapter, thanks to a ‘histoire-problème’ often based on sociological and anthropological literature (e.g. in Ch. 6 with Didier Fassin on lead poisoning).
For the English-speaking audience, which has till now often relied on references to Foucault and Latour, the book might well be a way to grasp the reception of Foucauldian studies by French-speaking historians, in the footsteps of Jacques Léonard. Arguably the first historian of medicine in France and the author of one of the best comment on Foucault’s oeuvre,Footnote 5 Léonard has directly and indirectly influenced various historians such as Olivier Faure or Alain Corbin (who have developed their different take on his legacy from the history of the medical power to the history of the body and of emotion). Monnais shows herself a worthy successor to these historians in her study of la médecine entre les savoirs et les pouvoirs, in reference to Léonard’s work.Footnote 6 This book was long time coming according to the author’s admission in the introduction but it is well worth the wait.
