Books by

Kevin Brown

Kevin Brown is Trust Archivist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum Curator at St Mary’s Hospital in London where he set up the Archives Service and Museum. He is former Chairman of the London Museums of Health and Medicine. He was the first historian and non-scientist to be Andrew J. Moyer Lecturer at the US Department of Agriculture National Center for Agricultural Utilisation Research. He has written a number of books on the history of health and medicine and is an experienced speaker. Here are details of the books he has written.

Sutton PublishingSeptember 2006

ISBN 0-7509-3152-3

Penicillin ManAlexander

Fleming and the Antibiotic Revolution

Sutton PublishingSeptember 2005

ISBN 0-7509-3153-1

Penicillin ManAlexander

Fleming and the Antibiotic Revolution

Penicillin ManAlexander

Fleming and the Antibiotic Revolution

Penicillin has affected the lives of everyone, and has exerted a powerful hold on the popular imagination since its first use in 1941. The story of its development from a chance observation in 1928 by Alexander Fleming to a life-saving drug is compelling and exciting. It revolutionized healthcare and turned the modest, self-effacing Fleming into a world hero. This book tells the story of the man and his discovery set against a background of the transformation of medical research from nineteenth-century individualism through to teamwork and modern-day international big business Now, sixty years after the antibiotic revolution, when there are fears that the days of antibiotics are numbered it has never been more timely to look at the beginnings.

REVIEWS OF PENICILLIN MAN

"Exudes a quiet authority" (Daily Mail)

"Sir Alexander Fleming has finally got the biography he deserves." (Contemporary Review)

" Written with honesty, intelligence, and just enough gossip to make it as much a beach book as a bench book" (British Medical Journal)

"This biography reads like a novel that cannot be put down, but it has been researched as a work of scholarship." (School Science Review)

"When Kevin Brown became archivist to St Mary's Hospital in 1989 he decided, perhaps naively, to ‘avoid doing anything at all connected with Fleming’. Fortunately, he changed his mind. One reason was a feeling that earlier biographies were too polarized, for or against Fleming, and an independent more balanced approach was needed. Whether this was possible for the St Mary's archivist even if he was an Oxford graduate, readers must decide. I think he has succeeded." (Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy),

"Should be in every Medical Library" (Ulster Medical Journal)

"Described as "the best and most authoritative book yet" by someone who knows the subject well this book will be enjoyed not only by those interested in scientific discoveries but anyone who enjoys a good, well written biography" (Amazon review).

"My daughter, age 12, read this as part of an assignment. It is very child-friendly, while, at the same time, informative" (Amazon review).

Sutton PublishingSeptember 2006

ISBN 0-7509-40417

The PoxThe Life and

Near Death of a Very Social

Disease

The PoxThe Life and Near

Death of a Very Social Disease

From almost the time when man first discovered the pleasures of sin, he has also experienced the torments of the Pox. This book uncovers the unwholesome history of syphilis and gonorrhoea, and their treatment, from the Renaissance to the antibiotic age. Gonorrhoea had been known since antiquity in Western Europe, but syphilis first made an impact in 1494 when the "Great Pox" reached epidemic proportions. Mercury remained the most effective cure until the twentieth century, but the treatment was so unpleasant that quack 'cures' abounded. Well-known syphilitics included Pope Alexander VI, Ivan the Terrible, Randolph Churchill, Al Capone and possibly Hitler. During the First and Second World Wars, VD was almost a greater cause of illness among soldiers than wounds. Its prevalence made it a major public health issue, yet many of the approaches to it were penal and reformatory in nature rather than medical. Kevin Brown draws on references from art and literature, stories of famous sufferers and medical documents to compile this fascinating history of these diseases, which were seen as much as a social and moral problem as a medical one.

"Kevin Brown tells the story of syphilis in all its gruesome detail. He's a good narrator and the subject matter reveals how human beings project evils onto others and seek to deny their appetites and sins... Casual sex will never feel the same again" (Amazon review)

"Politics and pox, whatever one's race, nationality or creed, disease knows no boundaries, says Kevin Brown" (Paddington and Westminster Times)

Reviews of The Pox

The History PressNovember 2008

ISBN 0750946490

Fighting Fit Health, Medicine and War in the Twentieth Century

Fighting Fit Health, Medicine and War in the Twentieth Century

The twentieth century saw two world wars and many other conflicts characterised by technological change and severity of casualties. Medicine has adapted quickly to deal with such challenges and new medical innovations in the military field have had advantages in civil medicine. There has thus been interplay between war and medicine that has not only been confined to the armed forces and military medicine, but which has impacted on health and medicine for us all. These themes will be examined from the Boer War to the dawn of a new century, and a 'war against terror;' the experiences of individuals as doctors, nurses and patients, are highlighted, with personal, sometimes graphic, first-hand accounts bringing home the realities of medical treatment in wartime.

The story of the relationship between health, medicine and warfare on the battlefield and the home front in the wars of the last century from the Boer War to 2001.

"Any study of this very broad subject requires a compendious, meticulously structured approach. In this, Kevin Brown’s impressive book largely succeeds." (British Medical Journal).

Reviews of Fighting Fit

Seaforth PublishingMay 2011

ISBN 1848320639

Poxed and Scurvied

The Story of Sickness &

Health at Sea

US Naval Institute PressAugust 2011

ISBN 159114809X

Poxed and Scurvied

The Story of Sickness &

Health at Sea

Poxed and Scurvied The Story of

Sickness & Health at Sea

When European sailors began to explore the rest of the world, the problem of keeping healthy on such long voyages became acute. Malnourishment and crowded conditions bred disease, but they also carried epidemics that decimated the indigenous populations they encountered – and brought back new diseases like syphilis. As navies developed, the well-being of crews became a dominant factor in the success of naval operations, so it is no surprise that the Royal Navy led the way in shipboard medical provision, and sponsored many of the advances in diet and hygiene which by the Napoleonic Wars gave its fleets a significant advantage over all its enemies. These improvements trickled down to the merchant service, but the book also looks at two particularly harsh maritime environments, the slave trade and emigrant ships, both of which required special medical arrangements. Eventually, the struggle to improve the fitness of seamen became a national concern, manifest in a series of far-reaching – and sometimes bizarre – public health measures, generally directed against the effects of drunkenness and the pox. In this way, as in many others, an attempt to address the specific needs of the seafarer developed wider implications for society as a whole. It also produced scientific breakthroughs that were a universal benefit, so far from being a narrow study of medicine at sea, this book provides a fascinating picture of social improvement.

Reviews of Poxed and Scurvied

"A fascinating insight into the history of maritime medicine ... Brown has excavated fascinating diary material ... offers vivid contemporary accounts of the sick bays on warships during battle." (Ham & High).

"Kevin Brown opens a window on the medical experiences of your ancestors at sea" (BBC Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine).

"This book provides a fascinating picture of social improvement" (Imperial College School of Medicine Gazette).

WORK IN PROGRESSPassage to the World

A study of experiences and conditions aboard emigrant ships during the great wave of emigration from Europe to the world and between European colonies from the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the mid-twentieth century

Planned publication: 2013 Seaforth Publishing