A History of Ideas About the Prolongation of Life

Author: Gerald J. Gruman
Report Type: Paperback Book
Language: English
Pub Date: 2003
Pages: 221
Pub Code: 0-8261-1875-5
Price: $13.95 (USD)

About the Book

Gerald J. Gruman provides the reader with a variety of thought-provoking perspectives. He examines the quest for longevity and immortality up to the year 1800 and presents multicultural perspectives and attitudes as depicted in Islamic and Chinese societies as well as in Western Civilization. What is fascinating about the history is the intermingling of science and superstition, medicine and mysticism, repeated over generations in a ceaseless quest for immortality. His scholarly work contributes to our understanding of the origins of medicine and public health as well as the underlying psychological and social determinants of longevity and humanity's longing for its attainment. Perhaps more relevant today than it was in 1966, because it places in historical context new scientific findings that relate to the complex biology of aging and longevity as well as to recent advances in the care of older people.

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About the Author

Gerald J. Gruman, M.D., Ph.D., attended Columbia University and Cornell University. His medical training was done at the University of Pennsylvania. Gruman served two years as a medical officer in the U.S. Public Health Service, and then enrolled as a student in History of Science at Harvard University. He taught history at Johns Hopkins University and University of Massachusetts. Aside from the present book, he edited a number of books in the Arno aging and death series. He has been a recipient of a J.S. Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship and a Special Research Fellowship of the N.I.M.H.

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A History of Ideas About the Prolongation of Life

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