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The Facemaker: One Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I

  • Book
  • 2022
  • #Medicine #History
Lindsey Fitzharris
@DrLindseyFitz
(Author)
www.goodreads.com
See on Goodreads
4.46/5 18 ratings
2 Recommenders
3 Mentions
The poignant story of the visionary surgeon who rebuilt the faces of the First World War's injured heroes, and in the process ushered in the modern era of plastic surgery From the... Show More

The poignant story of the visionary surgeon who rebuilt the faces of the First World War's injured heroes, and in the process ushered in the modern era of plastic surgery

From the moment the first machine gun rang out over the Western Front, one thing was clear: mankind's military technology had wildly surpassed its medical capabilities. The war's new weaponry, from tanks to shrapnel, enabled slaughter on an industrial scale, and given the nature of trench warfare, thousands of soldiers sustained facial injuries. Medical advances meant that more survived their wounds than ever before, yet disfigured soldiers did not receive the hero's welcome they deserved.

In The Facemaker, award-winning historian Lindsey Fitzharris tells the astonishing story of the pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies, who dedicated himself to restoring the faces - and the identities - of a brutalized generation. Gillies, a Cambridge-educated New Zealander, became interested in the nascent field of plastic surgery after encountering the human wreckage on the front. Returning to Britain, he established one of the world's first hospitals dedicated entirely to facial reconstruction in Sidcup, south-east England. There, Gillies assembled a unique group of doctors, nurses and artists whose task was to recreate what had been torn apart. At a time when losing a limb made a soldier a hero, but losing a face made him a monster to a society largely intolerant of disfigurement, Gillies restored not just the faces of the wounded but also their spirits.

Meticulously researched and grippingly told, The Facemaker places Gillies's ingenious surgical innovations alongside the poignant stories of soldiers whose lives were wrecked and repaired. The result is a vivid account of how medicine and art can merge, and of what courage and imagination can accomplish in the presence of relentless horror.

(From Goodreads)

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ISBN: 0241389372

ISBN-13: 9780241389379

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Chris Boutté @TheRewiredSoul · May 19, 2022
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I gotchu! I publish a weekly non-fiction reading list every Monday on my blog and usually have 5-6 books on it every week As far as medical history, I got an early copy of the upcoming @DrLindseyFitz book and it’s awesome. It comes out in a few weeks
Chris Boutté @TheRewiredSoul · Jun 16, 2022
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Big congrats to the amazing @DrLindseyFitz for her new book hitting the NYT bestsellers list! It's a fantastic book. Go get it now. And if you haven't yet, check out our convo on the podcast Apple: [link] Spotify:
Simon Schama @simon_schama · Jun 12, 2023
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happy to be sharing display with Paul and the brilliant @DrLindseyFitz -Facemaker is an absolutely wonderful and moving book.
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