Roy Porter

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Template:Short description Template:Other people Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates Roy Sydney Porter Template:Post-nominals (31 December 1946 – 3 March 2002) was a British historian known for his work on the history of medicine. He retired in 2001 as the director of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine at University College London (UCL).

Life

Porter grew up in South London and attended Wilson's School in Camberwell.<ref name="independent">John Forrester, "Obituary: Professor Roy Porter", The Independent, 6 March 2002 (accessed 6 July 2015)</ref> He won a scholarship to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he studied under J. H. Plumb.<ref name="telegraph">'Professor Roy Porter', The Telegraph, 5 March 2002 (accessed 14 March 2009)</ref> His contemporaries included Simon Schama and Andrew Wheatcroft. He achieved a double starred first<ref name="independent"/><ref name="guardian">W F Bynum, "Obituary: Roy Porter", The Guardian, 5 March 2002 (accessed 14 Mar 2009)</ref> and became a junior Fellow in 1968, studying under Robert M. Young and lecturing on the British Enlightenment.<ref name="telegraph"/> In 1972, he moved to Churchill College as the Director of Studies in History, later becoming Dean in 1977.<ref name="independent"/><ref name="guardian"/> He received his doctorate in 1974, publishing a thesis on the history of geology as a scientific discipline.<ref name="medhist">Julia Sheppard, 'Obituary: Roy Porter 1946–2002', Medical History, 3 (2002)</ref> He was then appointed to the post of Assistant Lecturer in European History at Cambridge University and promoted to Lecturer in European History in 1977.<ref name="medhist"/>

In 1979 he joined the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine (part of University College London) as a lecturer. In 1993 he became Professor of Social History at the institute.<ref name="independent"/><ref name="guardian"/> He briefly served as its director. In 2000, Porter published The Enlightenment: Britain and the Creation of the Modern World. He retired in September 2001, moving to St Leonards-on-Sea, where he wanted to learn to play the saxophone, cultivate his allotment and engage in some travelling.<ref name="telegraph"/><ref name="medhist"/><ref name="psychbull">Hugh Freeman, 'Obituaries: Roy Porter, Formerly Medical and Social Historian', Psychiatric Bulletin, 26 (2002): 398–399</ref> He died of a heart attack five months later, while cycling.<ref name="psychbull"/> His memorial service was on 22 April 2002 at St Pancras Parish Church.<ref name="psychbull"/>

He was married five times, firstly to Sue Limb (1970), then Jacqueline Rainfray (1983), then Dorothy Watkins (1987), then Hannah Augstein, and finally his wife at the time of his death, Natsu Hattori.<ref name="telegraph"/><ref name="guardian"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He was known for the fact that he needed very little sleep.<ref name="independent"/><ref name="guardian"/><ref name="psychbull"/>

Roy Porter gave an annual history lecture to the boys at Wilson's School, Wallington.

Media appearances

Porter made many television and radio appearances. He was an original presenter of BBC Radio 3's Night Waves,<ref name="independent"/> a programme on which he was scheduled to appear, discussing doctors in literature, at the point of his death.<ref name="telegraph"/>

He also spoke at a large variety of events, and was known for his oratorical talents.<ref name="medhist"/>

Honours

He was awarded the Leo Gershoy Award of the American Historical Association in 1988.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Porter was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1994, and was made an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Psychiatrists.<ref name="guardian"/><ref name="medhist"/><ref name="psychbull"/>

A plaque for the memory of Porter was unveiled by the Mayor of Lewisham in a ceremony that took place on Thursday 5 June 2008 at 13 Camplin Street, New Cross Gate, London.<ref>The Roy Porter Memorial Plaque Unveiling on the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine at UCL website</ref>

Works

Starting with the publishing of his PhD thesis, as The Making of Geology in 1977, Porter wrote or edited over 100 books,<ref name="guardian"/><ref name="medhist"/> an academic output that was, and is, considered remarkable.<ref name="telegraph"/><ref name="guardian"/> The poet Michael Hofmann called him "a one-man book factory."<ref name=Baranauckas>Template:Cite news</ref> He is particularly notable for his work in the history of medicine, in pioneering an approach that focuses on patients rather than doctors.<ref name="independent"/><ref name="guardian"/> Despite his recognition in the history of medicine, he is quoted as saying, "I'm not really a medical historian. I'm a social historian and an 18th century man".<ref name="psychbull"/> In addition to the history of medicine and other sciences, he specialised in the social history of 18th-century Britain and the Enlightenment. He also wrote and lectured on the history of London. With G. E. Berrios, Porter published A History of Clinical Psychiatry (1985) and co-edited the international journal History of Psychiatry (1989).<ref>HPY.sagepub.com</ref> He also edited the journal History of Science for many years.<ref name="independent"/><ref name="psychbull"/>

In 2007 Roberta Bivins and John V. Pickstone edited Medicine, Madness and Social History: Essays in Honour of Roy Porter (Palgrave Macmillan). Several of the essays address Porter's work directly, and William F. Bynum appends a biographical sketch.

On the history of science

  • The Making of Geology: Earth Science in Britain, 1660–1815 (Cambridge and New York, 1977; reprinted 1980) (Template:ISBN)
  • The Earth Sciences: An Annotated Bibliography (New York and London, 1983) (Template:ISBN)
  • Man Masters Nature: Twenty-Five Centuries of Science (1989) Template:ISBN
  • Template:Cite book

On the history of medicine

  • The History of Medicine: Past, Present and Future (Uppsala, 1983)
  • A Social History of Madness: Stories of the Insane (London, 1987; 1989; 1996) (Template:ISBN)
  • Disease, Medicine, and Society in England, 1550–1860 (London, 1987; Basingstoke, 1993; Cambridge, 1995) (Template:ISBN)
  • Mind-Forg'd Manacles: A History of Madness in England from the Restoration to the Regency (London, 1987; 1990) (Template:ISBN)
  • Health for Sale: Quackery in England, 1660–1850 (Manchester and New York, 1989) (Template:ISBN)
  • Doctor of Society: Thomas Beddoes and the Sick Trade in Late Enlightenment England (London, 1991)
  • The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity (London, 1997; 1999) Template:ISBN
  • Nicholas Venette: Conjugal Love (1983) Template:ISBN
  • Anatomy of Madness (1985) Template:ISBN
  • Disease, Medicine, and Society in England, 1550–1860 (1995) Template:ISBN
  • The Cambridge Illustrated History of Medicine (1996) Template:ISBN
  • A Social History of Madness: The World Through the Eyes of the Insane (1988) Template:ISBN
  • Bodies Politic: Disease, Death, and Doctors in Britain, 1650–1900 (2001) Template:ISBN
  • Madness: A Brief History (2002) Template:ISBN<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Blood and Guts: A Short History of Medicine (2003) Template:ISBN<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
  • Flesh in the Age of Reason (2004) Template:ISBN
  • The Cambridge History of Medicine (2006) Template:ISBN
  • Madmen: A Social History of Madhouses, Mad-Doctors and Lunatics (2006) Template:ISBN

On the Enlightenment

  • Edward Gibbon: Making History (London, 1988) (Template:ISBN)
  • The Enlightenment (Basingstoke, 1990; 2001)
  • Enlightenment: Britain and the Creation of the Modern World (London, 2000) (Template:ISBN)
    • Published in the US as The Creation of the Modern World: The Untold Story of the British Enlightenment (New York, 2000) (Template:ISBN)

On social history

  • English Society in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1982; Harmondsworth, 1990) (Template:ISBN)
  • London: A Social History (London, 1994; 1996; 2000) (Template:ISBN)
  • The Rise and Fall of London's Town Centres: Lessons for the Future (London, 1996) (Template:ISBN)

History Today Articles

  • "Under the influence": mesmerism in England (September 1985)
  • The Rise and Fall of the Age of Miracles (November 1996)
  • Bethlam/Bedlam: Methods of Madness? (October 1997)
  • Reading is Bad for your Health (March 1998)
  • Matrix of modernity – Roy Porter discusses how the British Enlightenment paved the way for the creation of the modern world (April 2001)
  • The body politic: diseases and discourses – Roy Porter shows how 18th-century images of the medical profession flow over into the work of political caricaturists (October 2001)

Co-authored

As editor

Books about Roy Porter

  • Remembering Roy Porter (2002, The Wellcome Trust)
  • Medicine, Madness and Social History: Essays in Honour of Roy Porter (2007) Template:ISBN

References

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