First published in 1993, Elisabeth Brooke’s powerful exploration of women’s role as healers through the ages and their continuing fight for recognition is now expanded and updated. Tracing a lineage that spans the centuries, this revisionist history celebrates women in medicine from ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome through to the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the present day. Drawing on primary sources, the lives of revolutionary healers are explored in this comprehensive overview - from Trotula to Hildegard von Bingen, Mary Seacole to Wendy Savage.

Informed by the author’s appreciation of the politics of medicine, this revised edition features brand-new sections on community medicine; indigenous healers; end-of-life care and twentieth-century pioneers such as Rosemary Gladstar, Ina May Gaskin and Louise Hay.