Cold hard steel

<p>Brilliant volatile and invariably male the surgeon stereotype is a widespread and instantly recognisable part of western culture. Setting out to anatomise this stereotype <i>Cold hard steel </i>offers an exciting new history of modern and contemporary British surgery.<br><br> The book draws on archival materials and original interviews with surgeons analysing them alongside a range of fictional depictions from the<i> Doctor in the House </i>novels to Mills & Boon romances and the pioneering soap opera <i>Emergency Ward 10</i>. 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.<br><br> 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.<br><br>An electronic edition of this book is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.</p>