Cold, Hard Steel: The Myth of the Modern Surgeon

Cold, Hard Steel is a book that explores the surgeon stereotype in Western culture, using archival materials and original interviews with surgeons to analyze fictional depictions. It sheds light on the development and maintenance of the stereotype and explores the more candid and compassionate image of the surgeon that has emerged in recent years.

Format: Hardback
Length: 296 pages
Publication date: 27 June 2023
Publisher: Manchester University Press

Brilliant, volatile, and invariably male, the surgeon stereotype is a widespread and instantly recognizable part of Western culture. Setting out to anatomize this stereotype, Cold, Hard Steel offers an exciting new history of modern and contemporary British surgery.

The book draws on archival materials and original interviews with surgeons, analyzing them alongside a range of fictional depictions, from the Doctor in the House novels to Mills & Boon romances and the pioneering soap opera Emergency Ward 10. Presenting a unique social, cultural, and emotional history, it sheds light on the development and maintenance of the surgical stereotype and explains why it has proved so enduring.

At the same time, the book explores the more candid and compassionate image of the surgeon that has begun to emerge in recent years, revealing how a series of high-profile memoirs both challenge the surgical stereotype and simultaneously confirm it.

Weight: 468g
Dimension: 144 x 223 x 27 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781526156624