Joanna Bourke

Professor of History, Birkback College, UL

Joanna Bourke is a professor of history at Birkbeck College, University of London. She has published nine books, with her latest The Story of Pain: From Prayer to Painkillers out in June 2014.

Written by Joanna Bourke

Old surgical tools: a curved knife, a saw, and various bone-cutting instruments with metal blades and wooden handles.

essayPleasure and pain

Our anaesthetic times

Nobody wants to go back in time, but did we lose our sense of sympathy when we lost the shared experience of pain?

Joanna Bourke