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Book Reviews
| Marcus Ackroyd, Laurence Brockliss, Michael Moss, Kate Retford, and John Stevenson, Advancing with the Army: Medicine, the Professions, and Social Mobility in the British Isles 1790–1850 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006). ISBN 0-19-926706-5, 978-0-19-926706-4. 408 pp.
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| As the authors make clear in the preface, this is not an account of the medical work of army doctors. There is little reference to battlefield gore, or the more macabre aspects of pre-anaesthetic and pre-antiseptic surgery. Rather, it is a study of the army medical officers as a professional social group. There is a great deal of information about organizational structures, career paths, educational attainments and family backgrounds. The bloody apron is little in evidence. |
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The book is intended as a contribution to current historical debates about the nature of the 'middle class,' about social mobility, and about the emergence and role of the professions. It also contributes, more elliptically, to the currently fashionable discussion of 'Britishness,' since this particular profession was disproportionately recruited from 'the Celtic fringe.' |
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Whereas most of the seminal works in these debates have been founded either upon institutional studies or the anecdotal evidence provided by memoirs and letters, this book is based upon a carefully compiled 'prosographical database' of 454 medical officers, rigorously analysed. The major findings are well summarized by the authors:
What we seem to be observing in the first half of the nineteenth century through the prism of the army medical service is the construction of a professional class that is self-sustaining, but nevertheless open at the margins, which in its perception is British, urban, progressive, and ambitious for wealth and status (p. 341).
While one might linger over the word 'progressive,' in the context of some of the other professions, it seems securely founded in this case. The remaining conclusions may well be generally applicable, and certainly will stimulate debate significantly. They will be of considerable interest to academic readers, especially social and medical historians. |
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For the less specialist reader the book has the attraction that, as well as the tables and charts, it provides a wealth of fascinating detail about the individual careers and achievements of some really diverse nineteenth century medical men, in prose that is usually lucid and jargon-free. |
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It is a pity, perhaps, that more attention is not paid to relations between the army's medical officers and other military professionals. A reading of eighteenth and nineteenth century military texts designed for soldiers, suggests that there was scope for significant conflict between two sets of emergent professional values. Serious-minded army officers appear to have held firm ideas about such matters as hospitalisation, diet, bedding, and prevention of contagion, among other things. There was also ongoing friction over questions of rank, status and authority. The title, Advancing with the Army, seems to promise more, on such matters, than is actually delivered. |
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It is also unfortunate that, in a work of such meticulous research, where accuracy is of the essence, there are proofreading 'howlers.' That the sleepy Sussex village of Slinfold is transferred into the far more racy 'Sinfold' is just amusing. 'Columbo' for the capital of Ceylon, 'Amhurst' for the Commander-in-Chief, and 'ex-patriots' for 'expatriates' are less acceptable, however diverting. |
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Marginal criticisms aside, however, this is an important and readable book which makes a real contribution to historical understanding. Its promised companion volume on the naval medical officers will be awaited with interest.
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| DOUGLAS SIMES
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| UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO |
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