A Concise History of Veterinary Medicine (New Approaches to the History of Science and Medicine)

From Ayurvedic texts to botanical medicines to genomics, ideas and expertise about veterinary healing have circulated between cultures through travel, trade, and conflict. In this broad-ranging and accessible study spanning 400 years of history, Susan D. Jones and Peter A. Koolmees present the first global history of veterinary medicine and animal healing. Drawing on inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary perspectives, this book addresses how attitudes toward animals, disease causation theories, wars, problems of food insecurity and the professionalization and spread of European veterinary education have shaped new domains for animal healing, such as preventive medicine in intensive animal agriculture and the need for veterinarians specializing in zoo animals, wildlife, and pets. It concludes by considering the politicization of animal protection, changes in the global veterinary workforce, and concerns about disease and climate change. As mediators between humans and animals, veterinarians and other animal healers have both shaped, and been shaped by, the social, cultural, and economic roles of animals over time.

Susan D. Jones is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota and a trained veterinarian and historian. Along with her co-author, Peter A. Koolmees, she served as co-president of the World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, 2008-2014.

Emeritus Professor Peter Koolmees is a member of the Descartes Centre for the History and Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities of Utrecht University and a trained BSc and historian. He served as president in 2000-2004, and co-president in 2008-2014, of the World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine.