Providing access to historical sources on the development of the sociology of medicine, this set includes documents and articles from the mid-nineteenth century through to the early twentieth. The period was one of transition - from a belief in the religious and natural causes of disease, to first a social then a scientific explanation.
The set also charts the historical development of the sociology of health: the concept of health, its extension to workers, women and children, and its consolidation as a key social feature of nineteenth century capitalist societies.

Ideas about the transmission of disease have long formed the core of modern biology and medicine. Heredity and Infection examines their development over the last century. Two scientific revolutions - the bacteriological revolution of the 1890s and the genetic revolution at the start of the twentieth century - acted as the catalysts of major change in our understanding of the causes of illness. As well as being great scientific achievements, these were social and political watersheds that reconfigured the medical and administrative means of intervention. By establishing a clear distinction between transmission by infection and genetic transmission, this shift was instrumental in separating hygiene from eugenism.
The authors argue that the popular perception of such a sharp divide stabilized only after 1945 when the use of antibiotics to end epidemics became commonplace. For health professionals the separation has never become an absolute one, and the book examines the various blends of heredity and infection that have preoccupied biology, medicine and the social sciences. Heredity and Infection recontructs the changing epidemiology of such historically important pathologies as tuberculosis , cancer and AIDS. In doing so, it demonstrates the role of experimental models, medical practices and cultural images in the making of contemporary biochemical knowledge.

Contents:
Introduction
Contagion, Modernity and Postmodernity, Alison Bashford and Claire Hooker
Contagion and Cultural Histories of the Modern World
1. The Meaning of Contagion: Reproduction, Medicine and Metaphore, Margaret Pelling
2. Foreign Bodies: Vaccination, Contagion and Colonialism in the Nineteenth Century, Alison Bashford
3. Moral Contagion and the Will: The Crisis of Masculinity in Fin-de-Siécle France, Christopher Forth
4. Excremental Colonialism: Public Health and the Poetics of Pollution, Warwick Anderson
5. Leprosy and the Management of Race, Sexuality and Nation in Tropical Australia, Alison Bashford and Maria Nugent
6. Sanitary Failure and Risk: Pasteurisation, Immunisation and the Logics of Prevention, Claire Hooker
Contaminating Capacities in Postmodernity
7. Vulnerable Bodies and Ontological Contamination, Margrit Shildrick
8. A Pig's Tale: Porcine Viruses and Species Boundaries, Marsha Rosengarten
9. Taking the HIV Test: Self-Surveillance and the Making of Heterosexuality, Lisa Adkins
10. The Promiscuous Placenta: Crossing Over, Jane-Maree Maher
11. Carrier - Becoming Symborg, Melinda Rackham

It was not long ago that phrenology was commonly dismissed with amused contempt. However, recent scholarship now views it as one of the most significant, if curious, social and intellectual manifestations of the nineteenth century. It is seen as having impinged on virtually every aspect of life, thought and belief and is regarded as having contributed instrumentally to developments in anthropology, criminology, medicine, psychiatry and education. Many eminent figures of the period are also now appreciated as having seriously occupied themselves with phrenology, from sociologists Comte and Spencer to novelists such as Eliot and Balzac. This set of eight volumes draws together a wealth of material crucial to the intellectual debate over phrenology, both as a branch of mental physiology and as a contribution to the history of philosophy. The articles selected represent the variety of different views throughout the nineteenth century, both pro and anti-phrenology.

A real-life thriller about a nation in crisis, and the controversial decisions its leaders made during the COVID-19 pandemic. First, the government instituted no restrictions. Then, it didn't order the wearing of face masks. While the rest of the world looked on with incredulity, condemnation, admiration, and even envy, a small country in Northern Europe stood alone. As COVID-19 spread across the globe rapidly, the world shut down. But Sweden remained open. The Swedish COVID-19 strategy was alternately lauded and held up as a cautionary tale by international governments and journalists alike - with all eyes on what has been dubbed 'The Swedish Experiment'. But what made Sweden take such a different path? In The Herd, journalist Johan Anderberg narrates the improbable story of a small nation that took a startlingly different approach to fighting the virus, guiding the reader through the history of epidemiology and the ticking-clock decisions that pandemic decision-makers were faced with on a daily basis.

This volume brings together for the first time a series of studies on the social history of venereal disease in modern Europe and its former colonies. It explores, from a comparative perspective, the responses of legal, medical and political authorities to the 'Great Scourge'. In particular, how such responses reflected and shaped social attitudes towards sexuality and social relationships of class, gender, generation and race.

Related link: The Society for the Social History of Medicine
eBook available with sample pages: 0203300513

First Published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

"A Social History of Medicine" traces the development of medical practice over a period of enormous change, from the Industrial Revolution right through to the twentieth century. Drawing on a wide range of source material, it charts the changing relationship between patients and practitioners over this period, exploring the impact made by institutional care, government intervention and scientific discovery.
The study illuminates the extent to which medical assistance really was available to patients over the period, by focusing on provincial areas and using local sources. It introduces a variety of contemporary medical practitioners, some of them hitherto unknown and with fascinating intricate details of their work. The text offers an extensive thematic survey, including coverage of:
* institutions such as hospitals, dispensaries, asylums and prisons
- midwifery and nursing
- * infections and how changes in science have affected - disease control
- * contraception, war, and the NHS. "A Social History of - Medicine in England" provides an engaging introduction to - the subject which will appeal to students and teachers - alike.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Beginning with the origins of Western medicine and science in Egypt, Greece, and Rome the authors explore the relationship between race, medicine, and health care. An American Health Dilemma offers an extensive examination of the history of intellectual and scientific racism that evolved to give sanction to the mistreatment, medical abuse, and neglect of African Americans and other non-White people.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203904109

The belief in the reality of demons and the restless dead formed a central facet of the medieval worldview. Whether a pestilent-spreading corpse mobilised by the devil, a purgatorial spirit returning to earth to ask for suffrage, or a shape-shifting demon intent on crushing its victims as they slept, encounters with supernatural entities were often met with consternation and fear. Chroniclers, hagiographers, sermon writers, satirists, poets, and even medical practitioners utilised the cultural 'text' of the supernatural encounter in many different ways, showcasing the multiplicity of contemporary attitudes to death, disease, and the afterlife. In this volume, Stephen Gordon explores the ways in which conflicting ideas about the intention and agency of supernatural entities were understood and articulated in different social and literary contexts. Focusing primarily on material from medieval England, c.1050-1450, Gordon discusses how writers such as William of Malmesbury, William of Newburgh, Walter Map, John Mirk, and Geoffrey Chaucer utilised the belief in demons, nightmares, and walking corpses for pointed critical effect. Ultimately, this monograph provides new insights into the ways in which the broad ontological category of the 'revenant' was conceptualised in the medieval world.

Jews have been active participants in shaping the healing practices of the communities of eastern Europe. Their approach largely combined the ideas of traditional Ashkenazi culture with the heritage of medieval and early modern medicine. Holy rabbis and faith healers, as well as Jewish barbers, innkeepers, and pedlars, all dispensed cures, purveyed folk remedies for different ailments, and gave hope to the sick and their families based on kabbalah, numerology, prayer, and magical Hebrew formulas. Nevertheless, as new sources of knowledge penetrated the traditional world, modern medical ideas gained widespread support. Jews became court physicians to the nobility, and when the universities were opened up to them many also qualified as doctors. At every stage, medicine proved an important field for cross-cultural contacts. Jewish historians and scholars of folk medicine alike will discover here fascinating sources never previously explored-manuscripts, printed publications, and memoirs in Yiddish and Hebrew but also in Polish, English, German, Russian, and Ukrainian. Marek Tuszewicki's careful study of these documents has teased out therapeutic advice, recipes, magical incantations, kabbalistic methods, and practical techniques, together with the ethical considerations that such approaches entailed. His research fills a gap in the study of folk medicine in eastern Europe, shedding light on little-known aspects of Ashkenazi culture, and on how the need to treat sickness brought Jews and their neighbours together.

This is a complete translation of the medieval Chinese dietary Yin-Shan cheng-yao (1330) with full notes and supporting text, along with a monograph-sized introduction. The Chinese original is the first dietary manual of its kind in Chinese history, and is of particular interest on account of substantial Mongolian, Turkic, and general Islamic influences. The translation makes an important work for the Chinese herbal tradition generally available makes an important work of the chinese herbal tradition generally available, placed in its historical and cultural context, and also makes a significant contribution to the study of traditional East Asian foodways in a broader context. The translation is the first of its kind, and will substantially alter previously held views on Chinese interactions with non-Chinese cultures, including China's conquerors and their Turkic allies.

Although scorned in the early 1900s and publicly condemned by Abraham Flexner and the American Medical Association, the practice of homeopathy did not disappear. Instead, it evolved with the emergence of holistic healing and Eastern philosophy in the United States and today is a form of alternative medicine practiced by more than 100,000 physicians worldwide and used by millions of people to treat everyday ailments as well as acute and chronic diseases.

"The History of American Homeopathy" traces the rise of lay practitioners in shaping homeopathy as a healing system and its relationship to other forms of complementary and alternative medicine in an age when conventional biomedicine remains the dominant form. Representing the most current and up-to-date history of American homeopathy, readers will benefit from John S. Haller Jr.'s comprehensive explanation of complementary medicine within the American social, scientific, religious, and philosophic traditions.

The remarkable story of how a large public-private partnership worked to control and defeat riverblindness-a scourge which had devastated rural communities and impeded socioeconomic development throughout much of Sub-Saharan Africa for generations. Riverblindness (onchocerciasis)-a pervasive neglected disease, transmitted by the blackfly, that causes horrific itching, disfigurement, and loss of vision-is also known as "lion's stare" in reference to the fixed, lifeless glare of the eyes blinded by the disease. The disease has destroyed countless lives for generations, particularly in Africa. Its effects are so devastating that the areas where it is most common (large expanses of land around rivers where the fly breeds) end up abandoned as villages move farther and farther away to more arid environments in order to escape the fly-biting, and hence the disease. The disease devastates communities from multiple angles: a large portion of each stricken community's population is disabled, often permanently blind in the prime of life, placing a burden on the rest, and communities' efforts to escape infection force them to move to areas where farming is less productive. To defeat riverblindness would not only release these communities from the heavy toll of the disease, but would also open more fertile areas in Africa to be inhabited, thus alleviating extreme poverty. These were the goals of the World Bank, led by then-president Robert McNamara, when launching a partnership to combat riverblindness more than forty-five years ago. In this book, Bruce Benton tells the remarkable story of that partnership's success. An authoritative account of the launch and scale-up of the effort, the book covers the transformation of the fight from a top-down high-tech operation to a grassroots drug treatment program covering all of endemic Africa. How, Benton asks, did the effort become such a unique partnership of UN agencies, donors, NGOs, a major pharmaceutical company, universities, African governments, and the stricken communities themselves? Highlighting the importance of disease control in alleviating absolute poverty and promoting development, Benton examines the key developments, individuals, and notable qualities of the partnership in realizing success. He also extracts lessons from this particular story for addressing future challenges through partnership. Drawing on Benton's twenty years of experience managing the riverblindness program for the World Bank, along with extensive research and interviews with 100+ players in the program, Riverblindness in Africa is the first and only book of its kind. The story of the battle has an epic scale, both in terms of geography and the vast number of people and organizations involved. It provides a template for a broad range of global health efforts and is an excellent example of evolving, increasingly effective approaches to disease control and elimination.

Discusses the significance of oral history to the history of the development of health and welfare provisions. By focusing on individual experiences, as revealed through oral history approaches, the human dimensions of the history of medicine is explored. Oral history reveals the personal stories of innovation, policy shifts, training and treatment over a 60-year period of development, characterized by both continuity and change. This book includes discussion on: the end of the workhouse; professional education and training of midwives; HIV and AIDS; birth control; the role of the community pharmacist; pioneers of geriatric medicine; oral history; and the history of learning disability.

The origin and early years of any rapidly changing scientific discipline runs the risk of being forgotten unless a record of its past is preserved. In this, the first book-length history of clinical chemistry, those involved or interested in the field will read about who and what went before them and how the profession came to its present state of clinical importance. The narrative reconstructs the origins of clinical chemistry in the seventeenth century and traces its often obscure path of development in the shadow of organic chemistry, physiology and biochemistry until it assumes its own identity at the beginning of the twentieth century. The chronological development of the story reveals the varied roots from which modern clinical chemistry arose.

The seven medical manuscripts from Mawangdui tomb three unearthed in 1973 represent the richest cache of ancient medical manuscripts ever found in China. These manuscripts which comprise this book reveal for the first time the breadth of medical knowledge in third and early second century B.C. China. Included are discussions of physiological theories and pathology, recipe manuals for the treatment of ailments and for the practice of macrobiotic hygiene, sexual treatises, and illustrations of hygienic exercises.

This volume describes important medical discoveries, from the introduction of the first antibiotic to the present, where serendipity, intuition, coincidence, or laboratory accident played an important role in bringing a discovery to light. Although chance is the principal determinant, the book emphasizes other factors, such as economic and political exigencies and being in the right place at the right time.

This fascinating study presents a unique history of psychiatry in the twentieth century. It brings together the memories and narratives of over sixty patients and workers who lived, or were employed, in Severalls Psychiatric Hospital, Essex, UK. Personal accounts are contextualised both in relation to wider developments and issues in twentieth-century mental health, and in relation to policies and changes in the hospital itself.
Organised around the theme of space and place, and drawing upon both quantitative and qualitative material, chapters deal with key areas such as gender divisions, power relations, patterns of admission and discharge, treatments, and the daily lives and routines of patients and nurses of both sexes.

Now 750 years old, Bethlem Hospital has been continuously involved in the care of the mentally ill since at least 1400 - as such it has a strong claim to be the oldest foundation in Europe with an unbroken history of sheltering and treating the mentally disturbed. This text examines Bethlem's role within the caring institutions of London and Britain and its place in the history of psychiatry. Bethlem is not simply Europe's oldest psychiatric establishment; it is the most famous and the most notorious. It has assumed many guises over its 750 year history, it began as a religious foundation in the context of the Crusades. It became a hospital for the insane by accident, survived complex battles between Crown and Papacy, Parliament and the Corporation of the City of London, and gained great prominence for many years as Britain's only lunatic asylum. The name of Bethlem has actually turned into everyday speech and become part of a national culture. From Shakespeare's time, "Bedlam" was becoming detached from the institution and assuming a life and a persona.

"This important book has significant implications not only for historians but also for those interested in contemporary dental health policy." -Heather Munro Prescott, Central Connecticut State University "Picard describes how American dentists were involved in various social movements during the 20th century. Their involvement encompassed public health starting in the early part of the century, efforts to fluoridate the nation's water supplies to prevent tooth decay, social movements for racial and gender equity at mid-century, and the promotion of cosmetic services at the end of the century (a movement that continues today). It helps explain the obsession in the U.S. with having perfect teeth and a gleaming white smile. Recommended." -Choice "Good teeth signal social class and intellectual achievement in America, as Alyssa Picard knows well. In The Making of the American Mouth, she provides an engaging history of the evolution of American dentistry, including the profession's influence over our social norms and health policy. It's a book that anyone keen to understand and improve our current national state of oral health ought to read." -Health Affairs

Series Information:
The History of Civilization

Drawing on a wide range of sources including interdiction procedures, records of criminal justice, documentation from mental hospitals, and medical literature, this book provides a comprehensive study of the spaces in which madness was recorded in Tuscany during the eighteenth century. It proposes the notion of itineraries of madness, which, intended as an heuristic device, enables us to examine records of madness across the different spaces where it was disclosed, casting light on the connections between how madness was understood and experienced, the language employed to describe it, and public and private responses devised to cope with it. Placing the emotional experience of the Tuscan families at the core of its analysis, this book stresses the central role of families in the shaping of new understandings of madness and how lay notions interacted with legal and medical knowledge. It argues that perceptions of madness in the eighteenth century were closely connected to new cultural concerns regarding family relationships and family roles, which resulted in a shift in the meanings of and attitudes to mental disturbances.

This volume brings together for the first time a collection of essays, based on original research, which focus on the history of nutrition science in Britain. Each chapter considers a different episode in the development and application of nutritional knowledge during the twentieth century. The topics covered include: the chewing cult of Horace Fletcher, dietetic education, the popularization of milk, the Dunn Nutritional Laboratory, and wartime involvement in policy making.
The selection of essays in Nutrition in Britain provide valuable new insights into the social processes involved in the production and application of scientific knowledge of nutrition. This book will be fascinating reading to historians of science or medicine, as well as to medical sociologists, nutritionists, home economists, health educators, food activists and anyone with a professional or general interest in food and nutrition.