Cold, Hard Steel: The Myth of the Modern Surgeon

Cold, Hard Steel offers a social, cultural and emotional history of modern and contemporary British surgery, setting out to anatomise the widely recognised surgeon stereotype — brilliant, volatile and invariably male. Drawing on archival materials and original interviews with surgeons, the book analyses these alongside fictional depictions ranging from the Doctor in the House novels to Mills & Boon romances and the soap opera Emergency Ward 10.

The book traces how the surgical stereotype developed and why it has proved so enduring, while also exploring the more candid and compassionate image of the surgeon that has begun to emerge in recent years. It shows how a series of high-profile memoirs both challenge the surgical stereotype and simultaneously confirm it.

This publisher PDF is the first edition, published in 2023, running to a 24.1 MB file in English.

Key Features

Highlights

• New history of modern and contemporary British surgery
• Draws on archival materials and original interviews with surgeons
• Analyses fictional depictions, from the Doctor in the House novels to Mills & Boon romances and Emergency Ward 10
• Explores how high-profile surgical memoirs both challenge and confirm the surgeon stereotype