Tinsley Harrison M.D.: Teacher of Medicine

About this book

Tinsley Harrisondoctor teacher researcher medical school leaderis one of the most important medical figures of the 20th century. He edited the first five editions of Harrisons Principles of Internal Medicine regarded as a quintessential medical text and perhaps the best-selling medical textbook of all time. He traveled the world in his capacity as a teaching doctor made significant contributions to scholarship and served as the dean/medical chairman at four medical schools. He is a titan of the field an enormous presence central to the narrative of American medicine. Author Dr. James Pittman knew Harrison well studying and teaching with him from the 1950s until Harrisons death. Pittman spent six years interviewing Harrison near the end of Harrisons life and these lengthy interviews as well as interviews with his colleagues family and friends form the bulk of the scholarship of this compulsively readable book. Pittman brings his own medical knowledge to the fore as well as his personal friendship with the subject in this beautifully written character study of one of sciences great but not well-known men. Harrison lived a long exciting life and in these pages readers will get a glimpse of the historical forces that shaped and in turn were shaped by this legendary doctor.