Family history of illness: memory as medicine / Brett L. Walker.

By:

Walker, Brett L, 1967- [author.]

Material type: Text

TextPublication details: Seattle : University of Washington Press, 2018.Description: xi, 267 pages : illustrations ; 23 cmISBN:

9780295743035 (hbk)

Other title:

A family history of illness

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

920.009786 WAL 23

Contents:

Nightmares -- Immunodeficiencies -- Modalities -- Proteins -- Phenotypes -- Histories -- Epilogue.

Scope and content: "In this deeply personal narrative, Brett L. Walker sets out to construct a history of his body and family health in an effort of better understanding his diagnosis with a serious immunological disorder in 2010. While succumbing to pneumonia and a plural effusion in an Intensive Care Unit, a doctor's simple question, 'Do you have a family history of illness?' launched Walker's investigation into his and his family's medical past. The final product represents a startlingly fresh way to view the role of history in understanding our physical selves and, in the broader sense, the communities where we live. In his family's history, Walker discovers something far more valuable than a predisposition to an immunological disorder. He concludes that family stories are what shape us and color our world. Walker's relationship with rural life on a Montana wheat and barley farm are what he continues to rehearse in his own imagination. He discovers that family is at the root of identity and values. Without ties to a family history, we are like wheat waving in the wind. This, he concludes, is the more lasting lesson of history. Walker submits that, at a time when only the present seems to matter, we must renew our interest in the past, or risk misunderstanding our selves and the world around us"--Provided by publisher.

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Books	H.T. Parekh Library	SIAS Collection	920.009786 WAL (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		K9269

MSR B 863/28
$26.95/-

"A McLellan Book"

Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-256) and index.

Nightmares -- Immunodeficiencies -- Modalities -- Proteins -- Phenotypes -- Histories -- Epilogue.

"In this deeply personal narrative, Brett L. Walker sets out to construct a history of his body and family health in an effort of better understanding his diagnosis with a serious immunological disorder in 2010. While succumbing to pneumonia and a plural effusion in an Intensive Care Unit, a doctor's simple question, 'Do you have a family history of illness?' launched Walker's investigation into his and his family's medical past. The final product represents a startlingly fresh way to view the role of history in understanding our physical selves and, in the broader sense, the communities where we live. In his family's history, Walker discovers something far more valuable than a predisposition to an immunological disorder. He concludes that family stories are what shape us and color our world. Walker's relationship with rural life on a Montana wheat and barley farm are what he continues to rehearse in his own imagination. He discovers that family is at the root of identity and values. Without ties to a family history, we are like wheat waving in the wind. This, he concludes, is the more lasting lesson of history. Walker submits that, at a time when only the present seems to matter, we must renew our interest in the past, or risk misunderstanding our selves and the world around us"--Provided by publisher.

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