Gordon Parks: Stokely Carmichael and Black Power
Lisa Volpe and Cedric Johnson
Sickness and health, birth and death, disease and cure: medicine and our understanding of the workings of our bodies and minds are an inextricable part of how we know who we are. With science of healing now more vital than ever, as our bodies face new challenges from the globalization of disease, environmental change and increased longevity, this timely book is the best guide ever published to medicine’s achievements and its prospects for the future.
An international team of distinguished experts provide an unrivalled account of the evolution of medical knowledge and practice from ancient Egypt, India and China to today's latest technology, from letting blood to keyhole surgery, from the theory of humours to the genetic revolution, from the stethoscope to the MRI scanner. They explain medicine's turning points and conceptual changes in a refreshingly accessible way and answer some key questions: how has the plague influenced the course of human history? What effect did the pill have on the lives of women, and on society as a whole? What challenges does medicine face in our changing world?
Gordon Parks (1912–2006) was a photographer, filmmaker, musician and author whose 50-year career focused on American culture, social justice, the civil rights movement and the Black American experience. Born into poverty and segregation in Fort Scott, Kansas, Parks was awarded the Julius Rosenwald Fellowship in 1942, which led to a position with the Farm Security Administration. In 1969 he became the first Black American to write and direct a major feature film, The Learning Tree, and his next directorial endeavour, Shaft (1971), helped define a film genre.