The human body is a subject of huge historical importance, and this book explores how powerful organisations in the fields of medicine and law have controlled how the body has been perceived and limited, often in the name of health, safety or virtue. Drawing on archival evidence and contemporary historiographical controversies, A Modern History of the Body explores how the body has been understood or interpreted, treated and controlled, and what social and political values appear to lie behind those understandings and treatments.

Integrating the story of the human body into the wider narrative of modern Western society, and including study resources such as key questions and a further reading list, this book is of great importance to students seeking a historical understanding of how our interpretation and treatment of the body has changed over time.