LAURA FRANCES GOFFMAN. Disorder and Diagnosis: Health and the Politics of Everyday Life in Modern Arabia (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2024). 279 pp. $30.00 paper. ISBN 9781503640818

Disorder and Diagnosis is an important new contribution to the field of the history of medicine and disease in the Middle East.Its strength lies not only in the gaps it fills in our understanding of the medical history of the Arabian Peninsula, but also in its methodological sophistication.The book draws upon a wide variety of sources, including community folklore, British records, American missionary writings, oral testimonies, and interviews.Positioned as a "regional" rather than a national history, it traces the evolution of healthcare in the Arabian Peninsula from the nineteenth-century imperial era to the period of corporate capitalism ushered in by the 1973 oil boom occurring post-World War II (8).The originality of Goffman's work lies in foregrounding of the lived experiences of ordinary people, who have often remained outside the purview of the existing scholarship.It analyzes their access to healthcare, responses to medical interventions, and negotiations with evolving systems of care in a quickly shifting sociopolitical landscape.More importantly, it does so in a textured manner, in which the varied experiences of different gender and class groups really shine through, rather than assuming a generalized picture that overlooks these nuances.The book reminds us that the silences of the archive or the elitism of the available sources on medical history should not deter us from exploring the "lived experiences of the subalterns" and offers a useful approach to navigating these challenges (194).Particularly impressive is Goffman's compelling defense of her methodology of using sources produced by members of the "dominant class" for understanding the lived experiences of "non-elite subjects" in the nineteenth