The life of Isidore Snapper (1889-1973), the son of a diamond worker, was defined by ambition, cosmopolitanism, conflict, and antisemitism. As a Professor of Medicine in Amsterdam, Beijing and New York, he played a major role in important developments in medicine during the first half of the last century. He was a medical celebrity who combined supreme bedside skills and diagnostic acumen, masterly integrated with basic science at a time when big egos were still tolerated and accommodated. Never living a boring moment, Snapper acted as a football referee and sport scientist at the Olympic Games in Amsterdam in 1928, was a POW of the Japanese and a consultant to the US War Department, and finally fell in love with a CIA agent. His Bedside Medicine became a bestseller. This book presents the story of one of the last great generalists, a race of physicians that is now extinct, and a great champion of the holistic approach to patients. His legacy is still refreshing, topical and challenging for anyone with an interest in all matters of health.
