Texts
Rosenberg, Charles. The Cholera Years. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1968 , 1987. ISBN: 9780226726793.
Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. A Midwife's Tale. New York, NY: Knopf, 1990. ISBN: 9780394568447.
Starr, Paul. The Social Transformation of American Medicine. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1984. ISBN: 9780465079353.
Readings by Session
Lec # | Topics | READINGS |
---|---|---|
1 | Introduction: Disease, Medicine, and Society | |
2-3 | Trans-Atlantic Epidemiology |
![]() ![]() ![]() Jones, David S. "Virgin Soils Revisited." William and Mary Quarterly 60 (October 2003): 703-742. |
4-5 | Health and the Environment |
![]() Flint, Timothy. The History and Geography of the Mississippi Valley. To Which is Appended A Condensed Physical Geography of the Atlantic United States, and The Whole American Continent. 3rd ed. Vol I. Cincinnati, OH, E. Flint, MI, and Boston, MA: Carter, Hendee, and Co., 1833, pp. 35-40, 199-201, 223-224, 298-299, 331, and 407-408. Kupperman, Karen Ordahl. "Fear of Hot Climates in the Anglo-American Colonial Experience." William and Mary Quarterly 41 (1984): 213-240. ![]() |
6-7 | Urbanization and Health | Pernick, Martin S. "Politics, Parties, and Pestilence: Epidemic Yellow Fever in Philadelphia and the Rise of the First Party System." William and Mary Quarterly 29 (October 1972): 559-586.![]() |
8-9 | Epidemiological Transitions | Omran, Abdel R. "The Epidemiologic Transition: A Theory of the Epidemiology of Population Change." Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly 49 (October 1971): 509-538. McKinlay, John B., and Sonja M. McKinlay. "The Questionable Contribution of Medical Measures to the Decline of Mortality in the United States in the Twentieth Century." Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly (Summer 1977): 405-428. Marmot, Michael G. "Social Differentials in Health Within and Between Populations." Daedalus 123 (Fall 1994): 197-216. Wilkinson, Richard G. "The Epidemiological Transition: From Material Scarcity to Social Disadvantage?" Daedalus 123 (Fall 1994): 61-77. |
10 | Debate: Disease History and Health Policy | |
11-12 | Colonial Therapeutics | Josselyn, John. New-England's Rarities: Discovered in the Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, and Plants of that Country [1672]. Edited by Edward Tuckerman. Boston, MA: William Veazie, 1865, pp. 31-35, 48-55, 71-84, and 151. Heckewelder, John. An Account of the History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations, Who Once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighbouring States. Philadelphia, PA, 1819, pp. 221-244. ![]() |
13-14 | Medicine in the 18th century | Blake, John B. "The Inoculation Controversy in Boston, 1721-1722." New England Quarterly 25 (1952): 489-506. Buchan, William. Domestic Medicine Or, A Treatise on the Prevention and Cure of Diseases By Regimen and Simple Medicines. Exeter: J. B. Williams, 1785. Excerpts: Preface, Introduction, Diseases of the Studious, Knowledge and Cure of Diseases, Consumptions, Smallpox & Inoculation, Bleeding. A full text version of Domestic Medicine is available. Kopperman, Paul. "'Venerate the Lancet': Benjamin Rush's Yellow Fever Therapy in Context." Bulletin of the History of Medicine 78 (2004): 539-574. |
15-16 | Creating a Medical Profession | Louis, Pierre. Rechearches on the Effects of Bloodletting in Some Inflammatory Diseases. Boston, MA: C.G. Putnam, 1836, pp. 1-23, and 55-71. Drake, Daniel. Practical Essays on Medical Education and the Medical Profession in the United States. Cincinnati, OH: Roff and Young, 1832, pp. 5-19, and 45-59. ![]() |
17-18 | Scientific Racism/Sexism | Clarke, Edward H. Sex in Education; or, A Fair Chance for Girls. Boston, MA: James R. Osgood and Company, 1874, pp. 31-39, and 76-85. Jackson, Mercy Bisbee. "Sex and Education." In Sex and Education. Edited by Julia Ward Howe. A Reply to Dr. E. H. Clarke's Sex in Education. Boston, MA: Roberts Brothers, 1874, pp. 150-163. ![]() Brandt, Allan M. "Racism and Research: The Case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study." Hastings Center Report 8 (1978): 21-29. |
19-20 | Therapeutic Revolutions | Pernick, Martin. "The Calculus of Suffering in 19th-Century Surgery." Hastings Center Report 13 (April 1983): 26-36. "Discussion on the Advisability of the Registration of Tuberculosis." In Transactions of the College of Physicians 16. Philadelphia, PA, 1894, pp. 1-27. Leavitt, Judith W. "'Typhoid Mary' Strikes Back: Bacteriological Theory and Practice in Early Twentieth-Century Public Health." Isis 83 (1992): 608-629. ![]() |
21 | Public Health Politics I: Plague in Chinatown | |
22-23 | Medical Technologies | Carhart, J. W. "The Clinical Thermometer." Medical and Surgical Reporter 72 (1895): 119-121. Herrick, James B. "Modern Diagnosis." Journal of American Medical Association 92 (February 1929): 518-522. Evans, Hughes. "Losing Touch: The Controversy over the Introduction of Blood Pressure Instruments into Medicine." Technology and Culture 34 (October 1993): 784-807. Greene, Jeremy. "Releasing the Flood Waters: Diuril and the Transformation of Hypertension." Bulletin of the History of Medicine 79 (Winter 2005). (Forthcoming) Beecher, Henry K. "The Powerful Placebo." JAMA 159 (December 24, 1955): 1602-1606. |
24-25 | Public Health Revisited | Treichler, Paula. "AIDS, Homophobia, and Biomedical Discourse: An Epidemic of Signification." Cultural Studies 1 (October 1987): 263-305. Specter, Michael. "Higher Risk." New Yorker 81 (23 May 2005). (Web version) ![]() Brandt, Allan M. "The Cigarette, Risk, and American Culture." Daedalus 119, no. 4 (Fall 1990): 155-176. |
26 | Disease and Society in the 21st Century |