Author Description

Anesthesia, a crucial component of modern medicine, has changed enormously during the twentieth century. This engaging study of an important and influential department explores key themes in the field. Beinart uses a narrative framework to recall how the struggles of the early years and the demands of wartime contingencies strengthened the links between research, training, and clinical services; the pressures to demote the department in spite of its record of excellence; and how it survived to contribute to important sub-specialties of anesthesia and to engage in qualitatively new research. A combination of documentary and oral sources informs this original account, including a final chapter by the present Nuffield Professor of Anaesthetics, M.K. Sykes, and a foreword by the first Professor, Sir Robert Macintosh.