history 291 disease, medicine, and history · judith walzer leavitt and ronald numbers, sickness...

HIST 291- Williams 1

History 291

Disease, Medicine, and History Fall 2013, M,W,F 10:00-10:50am

317 Maybank Hall

Professor: Jacob Steere-Williams, Ph.D.

Office: 310 Maybank Hall

Office Hours: Wednesdays 2:00-4:00 pm, or by appointment

Telephone: (843) 953-3043

Email: [email protected]

Overview

This course investigates the changing meanings and entanglements of medical science and medical practice from the 19th century. We will examine ideas about the body and disease, the changing role and image of medicine in American and European life. Key themes we will examine include alternative medicine, the growth of medicine’s cultural authority, medical professionalization, the rise of public health, hospital care, and the conceptualization of class, race, gender, age, lifestyle, and place in terms of health. Though the focus of the class is on the western medicine, throughout the course we will be making transnational and global comparisons, as disease does not know geo-political boundaries. Your overall assessment in this class depends on your class participation and writing. You will work to sharpen your verbal and argumentative skills in frequent class discussions, and your writing skills through the formal study of some practical problems of expository writing and by revising essays that you write on topics raised in our historical discussion.


Course Objectives

This course serves a variety of goals. Part of the liberal arts tradition, learning to read, research, write, and think historically facilitates crucial skills in critical analytical thinking and deep reading that are at the heart of the mission at CofC. Though the basic tenet of the course is to provide you with an in-depth and focused narrative on many of the important themes in the history of medicine, in the process this course will help you to become a better writer, editor, reader, and thinker.

By the end of this course you will have obtained:

-Basic knowledge of differing conceptions of health, disease, and healing in modern history.

-An understanding of the changing role and image of medicine and medical professionals in American and European life.

-Knowledge of the changing social and cultural meanings and entanglements of medical science and practice in modern history.

-A more rigorous development of skills for reading the works of historians and evaluating them.

-The ability to articulate important historical questions and utilize primary sources to answer them.

-A historical and critical context that will be of use in encounters with matters of health and medicine as:

-Citizens and professionals on issues of public health and questions of medical ethics, and;

-As creative thinkers about more satisfactory modes of medical practice and health improvement and protection.

Humanities Student Learning Outcomes (Assessed in particular through the Final Exam)

Outcome 1: Students analyze how ideas are represented, interpreted or valued in various expressions of human culture.

Outcome 2: Students examine relevant primary source materials as understood by the discipline and interpret the material in writing assignments

Course Requirements:

-Two Short Essays (5 pages) 15% each, 30% total

-Research Paper (10-15 pages) 30%

-Final Examination 10%

-One time Class Discussion Leader 10%

-Five One-Page Reflections 10%

-Participation and Attendance 10%


Research Paper: For the Research Paper you will conduct original research at a local Charleston Archives (or several) on a disease of your choosing for a historical period covered in this course—the 18th to the 20th century—we will be working on this throughout the term, and you will be required to submit a short Prospectus, a Draft, and a Final Copy at the end of the term. You will also be responsible for preparing a short presentation of your research findings to the class at the end of the semester. Be sure to keep all research and writing material on your research paper throughout the term, as you will need to turn in a portfolio for the project at the end of the semester. 5% Prospectus, 5% Draft, 20% Final = 30% of total class grade.

One time Class Discussion Leader: Most Fridays we will be engaging with the week’s material through student-led interactive discussions. You are responsible for leading a discussion once in the course of the semester. This may seem somewhat daunting to those of you not comfortable with public speaking, but rest assured it is a learned skill and one we all need to work on. You will also be in small groups, to help spread the workload. To help facilitate discussion, your group must submit a list of discussion questions to me by email at least by the Wednesday before the Friday discussion takes place. I will circulate these to the entire class. The grade for this component will depend on the quality of your questions, the timeliness of their submission, and the quality of your leading the actual discussion. 10% of total class grade.

Five One-Page Reflections: Throughout the term you will get to choose Five of our Friday Discussions to write one page (double-spaced is fine) of exploratory, or free-writing reflections. The point of these exercises is twofold: to get you to write more frequently, and to get you to further engage with the primary sources for that particular week. There is no formula for these, and I want to urge that they are low-stakes. I want you to raise questions, explore interesting points, and synthesize arguments in a lively voice. We have 9 total Friday Discussions, so you have the option to skip a few. If you do more than 5, I will omit the lowest scores. These are low-stakes, but I will grade them for your effort and engagement, and they count for 10% of your total class grade. A printed copy is due at the Friday Discussion for which you are writing. Late reflections will not be accepted.

**The Participation grade includes attendance, active contribution to discussion, and all group work. In HST 291 you earn all of your participation grade. Perfect Attendance (or nearly), thoughtful and consistent participation in class discussions will earn you an A. Seldom participation and attendance, or distracting behaviors in class will earn you lower on the scale. Simply showing up to class, but never speaking, will most likely get you a participation grade in the C-range.

**Paper Revision Policy: Because writing is a process, and one that you should strive to improve upon, I will allow you to revise your Two Essays. If you choose to do this I will average the initial and the revised grades. You will have one week from when the paper is returned to submit your revised copy. You will not be able to revise the Research Paper, but various drafts will be due along the way to ensure your success. Likewise, the one-page Reflections are not up for revision.

**Essays that are emailed to me will not be accepted. Hard copies only. Essays will receive 10 points off for each day they are late. If you turn in a late paper (two days late, for instance, would equal -20 points), even if you revise you will still be penalized by the original tardiness of the essay. For example, an essay originally graded at 70, two days late would be a 50. If you revised the essay and I marked it to a 90, the average would be an 80, but your final grade would be a 60,


as you will still be penalized for turning in a late paper. It behooves you to turn in all assignments on time.

**Students with special learning needs should inform me at the beginning of the course so that reasonable accommodations may be made

Grading Scale

A 95-100 C+ 77-79

A- 90-94 C 74-76

B+ 87-89 C- 70-73

B 84-86 D+ 67-69

B- 80-83 D 64-66

D- 60-63

Anything below 60 constitutes a failing grade

In-Class Courtesy:

Technology is a fundamental aspect of modern culture- it is also essential to university life and has an important role to play in the college classroom. In this sense, I fully encourage you to use laptops, ipads, etc. to enhance your experience in HIST 291. However, please don’t abuse such privileges. It is extremely disrespectful not only to me, but to your fellow classmates to check your email, facebook, twitter, etc. during class. If I see you doing this I will certainly confront you (and you will lose participation points); how discreetly depends upon what number of offense and its severity. This really is common sense, so just remember to be respectful.

Academic Honesty: Academic dishonesty consists of any form of plagiarism or misrepresentation. Plagiarism is widely defined as intellectual theft of any kind. This includes, but is not limited to, representing someone else’s ideas or words as your own and failing to appropriately cite your sources. You must not plagiarize yourself by submitting work you have done for another course, in whole or in part. I have a zero tolerance policy on plagiarism. Depending on the severity, you will certainly fail an assignment and could fail this course if you plagiarize. If you have questions regarding plagiarism in general or concerns about your work and whether it is appropriate, you should see me in person BEFORE YOU SUBMIT AN ASSIGNMENT.

Plagiarism—using someone else’s words, ideas, or other intellectual work without properly giving them credit—will result in a failing grade on the assignment and/or class and a mandatory meeting with me. Please familiarize yourself with the definition of plagiarism and ways to avoid doing it unintentionally. The definition below can also be found on the Writing Center’s website.

MLA Handbook (Gibaldi, Joseph, and Walter S. Achtert. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 3rd ed. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1988. 21-25.)The MLA


Handbook defines plagiarism as the use of another person's ideas or expressions in your writing without giving proper credit to the source. The word comes from the Latin word plagiarius ("kidnapper"), and Alexander Lindey defines it as "the false assumption of authorship: the wrongful act of taking the product of another person's mind, and presenting it as one's own" (Plagiarism and Originality [New York: Harper, 1952] 2). "In short, to plagiarize is to give the impression that you have written or thought something that you have in fact borrowed from someone else." This can include paraphrasing, copying someone else's writing word for word, or using ideas that aren't your own without proper citation. Plagiarism is often unintentional, and bad research habits can form early in elementary school. Unfortunately, these bad habits can continue throughout high school and college and may result in severe consequences, from failure in a course to expulsion. To avoid these consequences, always cite your sources if you are unsure if you are plagiarizing (Gibaldi 21-25).

**As a College of Charleston Student you are bound to the HONOR CODE, which forbids lying, cheating, attempted cheating, stealing, attempted stealing and plagiarism. Plagiarism or cheating on an exam will result in an XF grade for the course.

For information on the CofC Honor System, see: http://studentaffairs.cofc.edu/honor-system/index.php

Required Books:

John Harley Warner and Janet Tighe (eds.) Major Problems in the History of American Medicine and Public Health (Houghton Mifflin, 2001).

Judith Walzer Leavitt and Ronald Numbers, Sickness and Health in America: Readings in the History of Medicine and Public Health (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1997).

Recommended Book:

William Kelleher Storey, Writing History: A Guide for Students (Oxford University Press, Fourth Edition, 2013).

**Additional Readings will be posted on our class website, via OAKS

**There is an average of 75-100 pages of reading per-week in this course.


Course Schedule in Brief with Important Reminders

Class 1 (Wednesday 21 August) Course Introduction

Class 2 (Friday 23 August) The Hippocratic Tradition and the Origins of Western Medicine **NO CLASS- I will be out of town for a family wedding- You can find a video lecture and discussion questions on OAKS

Class 3 (Monday 26 August) The Speckled Monster: Smallpox

Class 4 (Wednesday 28 August) A Cottage Industry

Class 5 (Friday 30 August) Friday Discussion: Early American Medicine

Class 6 (Monday 2 September) Medical Education I: Edinburgh and London- Essay 1 Assigned: Topic: Taking the Quack Seriously in the 19th c.

Class 7 (Wednesday 4 September) Medical Education II: The Paris Revolution

Class 8 (Friday 6 September) Friday Discussion: Changes in Medical Education

Class 9 (Monday 9 September) Medical Marketplace I- Homegrown Radicals

Class 10 (Wednesday 11 September) Medical Marketplace II- European Imports

Class 11 (Friday 13 September) Friday Discussion: 19th c. Alternative Medicine Class 12 (Monday 16 September) Professionalization: Women and Medicine Class 13 (Wednesday 18 September) Race and Medicine in the American South

Class 14 (Friday 20 September) Friday Discussion: 19th c. Minorities and Medicine

Class 15 (Monday 23 September) Archives Day- Meet at Addlestone Library

Class 16 (Wednesday 25 September) Miasma and Cleanliness: The Sanitary Movement

Class 17 (Friday 27 September) Archives Day: Meet at the Avery Institute

Class 18 (Monday 30 September) Studying Germs I- Essay 1 DUE- Hardcopy to my Office BEFORE Class Essay 2 Assigned: Topic: Lessons from the Laboratory- the Germ Theory as a Paradigm Shift

Class 19 (Wednesday 2 October) Studying Germs II

Class 20 (Friday 4 October) Archives Day- Meet at the Waring Archives

Class 21 (Monday 7 October) The Bacteriological Revolution

Class 22 (Wednesday 9 October The Laboratory Revolution


Class 23 (Friday 11 October) Friday Discussion: The Germ Theory – Research Paper Prospectus DUE

FALL BREAK- Saturday October 12th to Tuesday October 15th

Class 24 (Wednesday 16 October) The New Public Health and Immigration

Class 25 (Friday 18 October) Research Paper Check-in and Discussion

Class 26 (Monday 21 October) Professional Authority: The Case of Typhoid Mary

Class 27 (Wednesday 23 October) American Progressivism and TB

Class 28 (Friday 25 October) Friday Discussion Medical Authority: Typhoid & TB

Class 29 (Monday 28 October) New to the Hospital: X-rays and Twilight Sleep- Essay 2 DUE

Class 30 (Wednesday 30 October) Abraham Flexner: The American Medical School

Class 31 (Friday 1 November) Friday Discussion: Hospitals and Med Schools:

Class 32 (Monday 4 November) The Rise of Social Medicine

Class 33 (Wednesday 6 November) World War II, Women, and Venereal Disease

Class 34 (Friday 8 November) Friday Discussion: Social Medicine & VD

Class 35 (Monday 11 November) Microbes and Morales: The Fight Against Polio

Class 36 (Wednesday 13 November) Tuskegee: Medicine and Race in America

Class 37 (Friday 15 November) Friday Discussion: Polio and Tuskegee Rough Draft of Research Paper Due

Class 38 (Monday 18 November) Health Disparity in the Twentieth Century

Class 39 (Wednesday 20 November) AIDS in Focus

Class 40 (Friday 22 November) Student Research Paper Presentations

Class 41 (Monday 25 November): Student Research Paper Presentations-

THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY: Wednesday 27 November to Sunday 1 December

Class 42 (Monday 2 December): Last Class Period- Take Home Final Exam Distributed + Final Version of Research Paper DUE- Turn in Entire Project Portfolio

Final Exam- Take-Home- DUE Wednesday 11 December by 11:00am (NO LATER)

Detailed Reading Schedule


*All readings listed below are to be read BEFORE that class.

**Subject to Slight Variation Throughout the Term

Class 1 (Wednesday 21 August) Course Introduction

**NO ASSIGNED READINGS

Class 2 (Friday 23 August) The Hippocratic Tradition and the Origins of Western Medicine

**NO CLASS- I will be out of town for a family wedding- You can find a video lecture on OAKS

Readings

Essays: (28 pages)

1. Susan Reverby and David Rosner, “Medical Culture and Historical Practice,” in Major Problems, 3-9.

2. Charles Rosenberg, “Medicine’s Institutional History and Its Policy Implications,” in Major Problems, 9-16.

3. James Patterson, “Disease in the History of Medicine and Public Health,” in

Major Problems, 17-24.

4. Leavitt and Numbers, Introduction, in Sickness & Health, 3-10.

Documents: (21 pages)

1. Hippocratic Corpus, “Airs, Waters, Places” 148-169 on OAKS

Class 3 (Monday 26 August) The Speckled Monster: Smallpox as the First ‘Global’ Disaster

Readings

Essays: (38 pages)

1. Colin Calloway, “Indians, Europeans, and the New World of Disease and Healing,” in Major Problems, 41-48.

2. John B. Blake, “Smallpox Inoculation Foments Controversy in Boston,” in Major Problems, 48-54.


3. Eric H. Christianson, “Medicine in New England,” in Sickness & Health, 47-71.


1. Le Page du Pratz, “A French Observer in Louisiana, Reports on Natchez Nation Healing Practices, 1720-1728,” in Major Problems, 28-30.

2. Cotton Mather, “A Boston Minister, Proselytizes for Smallpox Inoculation, 1722,” in Major Problems, 30-33.

3. William Douglass, “A Boston Physician, Decries the Dangerous

‘Infatuation’ with Smallpox Inoculation, 1722,” in Major Problems, 33-35.

4. “A Broadside Laments the Death of Fifty-Four in a Hartford Epidemic, 1725,” in Major Problems, 35-36.

5. Zabdiel Boylston, “Recounts His Experiences as the First Physician to

Inoculate Against Smallpox in the American Colonies, 1726,” in Major Problems 36-37.

6. “A Virginia Domestic Guide to the Diseases of the American Colonies

Makes ‘Every Man His Own Doctor, 1734,” in Major Problems, 37-40.

7. Andrew Blackbird, of the Ottowa Nation, “Records a Story from Indian Oral Tradition About the Decimation of His People by Smallpox in the Early 1760s, 1887,” in Major Problems, 40-41.

Class 4 (Wednesday 28 August) A Cottage Industry: American Medicine in the Early 19th century

Readings

Essays: (22 pages)

1. Charles Rosenberg, “Belief and Ritual in Antebellum Medical Therapeutics,” in Major Problems, 108-114.

2. Judith Walzer Leavitt, “A Worrying Profession: The Domestic Environment

of Medical Practice in Mid-19th century America, in Sickness & Health, 145-160.


1. George Washington’s Physicians Narrate His Final Illness and Death, 1799, in Major Problems, 57-58.


2. Benjamin Rush Tells His Medical Students at the University of Pennsylvania of the Trials and Rewards of a Medical Career, 1803, in Major Problems, 60-63.

3. A Medical Apprentice in Rural South Carolina Records Daily Life in His

Diary, 1807, in Major Problems, 63-64.

4. A Young Physician Struggles to Get into Practice in Ohio, 1822,” in Major Problems, 70-71.

5. Samuel Cartwright, A Medical Professor and Racial Theorist, Reports to

the Medical Association of Louisiana on the ‘Diseases and Physical Peculiarities of the Negro Race, 1860, in Major Problems, 103-106.

6. A Tennessee Physician Calls for the Cultivation of a Distinctive Southern

Medical Literature, 1860, in Major Problems, 106-107.

Class 5 (Friday 30 August) Friday Discussion: 18th and early 19th c. American Medicine

Class 6 (Monday 2 September) Medical Education I: Edinburgh and London

Readings

Essays: (19 pages)

1. Lisa Rosner, “The Philadelphia Medical Marketplace,” in Major Problems, 80-90.

2. Roy Porter, “Medical Lecturing in Georgian London,” British Journal for the

History of Science, 91-99, in OAKS

Documents:

1. John M.T. Ford (ed.), A Medical Student at St Thomas's Hospital, 1801-1802 in OAKS

2. A Medical Apprentice Writes from Rochester About a Cadaver ‘Resurrected’ for Dissection, 1841, in Major Problems, 96-97.

Class 7 (Wednesday 4 September) Medical Education II: The Paris Revolution

Readings


Essays:

1. John Harley Warner, “From Specificity to Universalism in Medical Therapeutics,” in Sickness & Health, 87-102.

2. Ronald Numbers and John Harley Warner, “The Maturation of American Medical Science,” in Sickness & Health, 130-143.

Documents:

1. Pierre Louis, Researches on the Effects of Bloodletting, in OAKS

Class 8 (Friday 6 September) Friday Discussion: Changes in Medical Education

Class 9 (Monday 9 September) Medical Marketplace I- Homegrown Radicals- Thomsonians and Grahamites

Readings

Essays:

1. John Harley Warner, “Science, Healing, and the Character of the Physician,” in Major Problems, 143-149

2. Steven Stowe, “Seeing Themselves at Work: Physicians and the Case Narrative in the Mid-19th century American South,” in Sickness & Health, 161-187.

Documents:

1. Code of Ethics of American Medical Association, 1848 in OAKS

2. The Graham Journal of Health, excerpts, in OAKS

3. Samuel Thomson, A Botanic Healer, Decries the Regular Medical Profession as a Murderous Monopoly, 1822, in Major Problems, 71-73.

4. Jacob Bigelow, A Harvard Medical Professor, Challenges the Physician’s

Power to Cure, 1835, in Major Problems, 94-96.

Class 10 (Wednesday 11 September) Medical Marketplace II- European Imports: Hydropaths and Homeopaths

Readings:


Essays:

1. Ronald Numbers, “The Fall and Rise of the American Medical Profession,” in Sickness & Health, 225-237.

Documents:

1. Mary Gove Nichols, A Women’s Health Reformer, Explains Why She Became a Water-Cure Practitioner, 1849, in Major Problems, 127-129.

2. Domestic Practitioners of Hydropathy in the West Testify to Their Faith in Water Cure, 1854, in Major Problems, 135-136.

3. A County Medical Society Bemoans the Prevalence of Quackery and Public

Opinion Opposed to Legal Regulation of Medical Practice, 1843, in Major Problems, 127-129.

Class 11 (Friday 13 September) Friday Discussion: 19th c. Alternative Medicine Class 12 (Monday 16 September) Professionalization: Women and Medicine Readings:

Essays:

1. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, “The Medical Challenge to Midwifery,” in Major Problems, 73-80.

2. Regina Markell Morantz-Sanchez, “Science, Health Reform, and the

Woman Physician,” in Major Problems, 149-157. 3. Regina Morantz-Sanchez, “The ‘Connecting Link’: The Case for the

Woman Doctor in 19th Century America,” in Sickness & Health in America, 213-223.

Documents:

1. Walter Channing, A Harvard Medical Professor, Warns of the Dangers of Women Practicing Midwifery, 1820, in Major Problems, 67-70.

2. A New York State Doctor Rails to His Professional Brethren Against the

Education of Women as Physicians, 1850, in Major Problems, 131-133.


3. Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell, Pioneer Women Physicians, Extoll the Woman Physician as the ‘Connecting Link’ Between Women’s Health Reform and the Medical Profession, 1859, in Major Problems, 136-140.

4. Edward H. Clarke, An Eminent Boston Physician, Assets That Biology

Blocks the Higher Education of Women, 1873, in Major Problems, 140-143.

5. Kate Cumming, an Alabama Nursing Volunteer, Writes in Her Journal About Conditions in the Confederate Army Hospital Service, 1862, in Major Problems, 168-172.

6. Nursing Volunteer Louisa May Alcott Reports to Readers at Home About Her Experiences with the Union Army, 1863, in Major Problems, 173-176.

Class 13 (Wednesday 18 September) Race and Medicine in the American South

Readings:

Essays:

1. Todd Savitt, “Race, Human Experimentation, and Dissection in the Antebellum South,” in Major Problems, 120-123.

2. Todd Savitt, “Black Health on the Plantation: Masters, Slaves, and Physicians,” in Sickness & Health, 351-369.

Documents

1. Samuel Cartwright, A Medical Professor and Racial Theorist, Reports to the Medical Association of Louisiana on the ‘Diseases and Physical peculiarities of the Negro Race,’ in Major Problems, 103-103.

2. A Tennessee Physician Calls for the Cultivation of a Distinctive Southern Medical Literature, 1860, in Major Problems, 106-107.

Class 14 (Friday 20 September) Friday Discussion: 19th c. Minorities and Medicine

Class 15 (Monday 23 September) Archives Day- Meet at Addlestone Library’s Special Collections

Class 16 (Wednesday 25 September) Miasma and Cleanliness: The Sanitary Movement

Readings:

Essays:


1. Gert Brieger, “Sanitary Reform in New York City: Stephen Smith and the Passage of the Metropolitan Health Bill,” in Sickness & Health, 437-452.

Documents:

1. B.W. Richardson, Hygeia: A City of Health, OAKS

2. Medical Editor Stephen Smith Preaches the Gospel of Sanitary Reform During Wartime, 1863, in Major Problems, 172-173.

3. Sanitary Reformers Build Upon Civil War Precedents to Clean Up Post-War Cities, 1865, in Major Problems, 178-180.

Class 17 (Friday 27 September) Archives Day: Meet at the Avery Institute

Class 18 (Monday 30 September) Studying Germs I: Scientific Surgery: Anesthesia and Listerism-

Readings:

Essays:

1. Martin Pernick, “Pain, the Calculus of Suffering, and Antebellum Surgery,” in Major Problems, 114-120.

Documents:

1. A New York Medical Student Recounts in His Diary His Emotional Responses to Surgery, 1828, in Major Problems, 93-94.

2. A Yale Medical Student Decries the Use of Anesthesia in Childbirth, 1848, in Major Problems, 101-103.

3. Lister, “The Antiseptic System,” OAKS

Class 19 (Wednesday 2 October) Studying Germs II: John Snow and the Epidemiology of Cholera

Readings:

Essays:

1. Rosenberg, Charles. “Cholera in Nineteenth-Century Europe: A Tool for Social and Economic Analysis.” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 8, 1966, 452-463, in OAKS


2. John Duffy, “Social Impact of Disease in the Late 19th Century,” in Sickness & Health, 418-426.

3. Louis Cain, “Raising and Watering a City: Ellis Sylvester Chesbrough and Chicago’s First Sanitation System,” in Sickness & Health, 531-543.

Documents:

1. John Snow, Mode and Communication of Cholera OAKS

Class 20 (Friday 4 October) Archives Day- Meet at the Waring Archives

Class 21 (Monday 7 October) The Bacteriological Revolution

Readings:

Essays:

1. John Harley Warner, “Professional Optimism and Professional Dismay over the Coming of the New Scientific Medicine,” in Major Problems, 216-223.

2. Gretchen Condran, “The Decline in Mortality in Philadelphia from 1870 to 1930,” in Sickness & Health, 452-467.

Documents:

1. Henry P. Bowditch, A Recent Harvard Medical Graduate Studying in Europe, Finds in Experimental Laboratory Physiology the Path to a New Scientific Medicine, 1869, in Major Problems, 198-201.

2. Clarence Blake, a Young Boston Physician Studying in Europe, Finds a Clinical Specialism the Path to a New Scientific Medicine, 1869, in Major Problems, 201-204.

3. Robert Bartholow, a Philadelphia Medical Professor, Celebrates Experimental Medicine and the Ongoing Therapeutic Revolution, 1879, in Major Problems, 205-207.

Class 22 (Wednesday 9 October The Laboratory Revolution: Vaccines and Antitoxins

Readings:

Essays:


1. Bert Hansen, “Popular Optimism About the Promise of the New Scientific Medicine: The Case of Rabies Vaccine,” in Major Problems, 224-233.

2. Thomas Neville Bonner, “The German Model of Training Physicians in the United States, 1870-1914: How Closely Was it Followed?” in Sickness & Health, 189-200.

Documents:

1. Daniel W. Cathell, Counsels Physicians on How to Succeed in Business, 1882, in Major Problems, 207-213.

2. New York Newspaper Launches Fundraising Campaign for ‘Miraculous’ New Diphtheria Cure, 1894, in Major Problems, 213-215.

Class 23 (Friday 11 October) Friday Discussion: The Germ Theory

FALL BREAK- Saturday October 12th to Tuesday October 15th

Class 24 (Wednesday 16 October) The New Public Health and Immigration

Readings:

Essays:

1. Alan Kraut, “Physicians and the New Immigration During the Progressive Era,” in Major Problems, 264-268.

2. Guenter Risse, “Bubonic Plague, Bacteriology, and Anti-Asian Racism in San Francisco, 1900,” in Major Problems, 268-273.

3. Nancy Tomes, “The Private Side of Public Health: Sanitary Science, Domestic Hygiene, and the Germ Theory, 1870-1900,” in Health & Sickness, 506-528.

Documents:

1. A Professor of Hygiene Reports on the Success of Municipal laws in Battling the American “Spitting Habit,” 1900, in Major Problems, 237-239.

2. Charles V. Chapin, A Public Health Leader, Proclaims a New Relationship Among ‘Dirt, Disease, and the Health Officer,’ 1902, in Major Problems, 239-241


3. Terrance Powderly, Commissioner-General of Immigration, Warns of the Menace to the Nation’s Health of the New Immigrants, 1902, in Major Problems, 241-245.

4. A Georgia Physician Addressing ‘the Negro Health Problem’ Warns that Germs Know No Color Line, 1914, in Major Problems, 250-253.

5. The Modern Health Crusade Mobilizes Children for Health Reform, 1918, in Major Problems, 253-256.

6. Popular Health Magazine, Hygeia Depicts the Germ as a Stereotyped Dangerous Alien Criminal, 1923, in Major Problems, 256-257.

Class 25 (Friday 18 October) Research Paper Check-in and Discussion

Class 26 (Monday 21 October) Professional Authority: The Case of Typhoid Mary

Readings:

Essays:

1. Judith Walzer Leavitt, “Typhoid Mary Strikes Back: Bacteriological Theory and Practice in Early 20th Century Public Health,” in Sickness & Health, 506-529.

2. David Glassberg, “The Design of Reform: the Public Bath Movement in America,” in Sickness & Health, 485-494.

3. Rima Apple, “Physicians and Mothers Construct ‘Scientific Motherhood,’” in Major Problems, 332-339.

Documents:

1. A Doctor Advises Mothers in a Mass-Circulation Women’s Journal, 1920, in Major Problems, 320-322.

2. Families Seek Expert Advice from the Children’s Bureau When Health Questions Arise, 1916-1926, in Major Problems, 329-331.

3. In-Class Film, NOVA- Typhoid Mary

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/typhoid-mary-villain-or-victim.html

Class 27 (Wednesday 23 October) American Progressivism and the Campaign against Tuberculosis


Readings:

Essays:

1. Nancy Tomes, “Germ Theory, Public Health Education, and the Moralization of Behavior in the Antituberculosis Crusade,”

Documents:

1. John E. Hunter, an African American Physician, Admonishes Antituberculosis Activists to Recognize that Blacks and Whites must Battle Germs as Their Common Enemy, 1905, in Major Problems, 245-248.

2. Advertising Health, the National Association for the Prevention and Study of Tuberculosis Promotes Antituberculosis Billboards, 1910, in Major Problems 250-253.

3. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Calls out the Vote for a County Tuberculosis Hospital, ca. 1920s, in Major Problems, 427-428.

Class 28 (Friday 25 October) Friday Discussion: Authority: Typhoid and TB

Class 29 (Monday 28 October) Transforming the Hospital: X-rays and Twilight Sleep

Readings:

Essays:

1. Morris J. Vogel, “Patrons, Practitioners, and Patients: The Voluntary Hospital in Mid-Victorian Boston,” in Sickness & Health, 323-333.

2. Joel D. Howell, “Making Machines Clinically Useful in the Modern Hospital,” in Major Problems, 368-372.

3. Judith Walzer Leavitt, “’Twilight Sleep’: Technology and the Medicalization of Childbirth,” in Major Problems, 372-378.

Documents:

1. Journalist William Armstrong Reports to Women About his Investigation of the New Birthing Technology ‘Twilight Sleep,’ 1915, in Major Problems, 354-357.

2. Doctor Analyzes Clinical Data to Determine the Safety and Effectiveness of ‘Twilight Sleep,’ 1915, in Major Problems, 357-361.


3. Advertisement Insists that for a Hospital to Refuse to Buy its ‘Pulmotor’ is Tantamount to Malpractice,’ 1919, in Major Problems, 361-362.

4. Physician Charles L. Leonard Extolls the Diagnostic Virtues of the new x-ray Technology, 1897, in Major Problems, 351-352.

5. Editor of Leading Medical Journal Urges, ‘Precauationary x-ray Examinations,’ 1912, in Major Problems, 352-354.

6. The American College of Surgeons Urges Standards for Hospital Efficiency and Physician Accountability, 1915, in Major Problems, 286-290.

Class 30 (Wednesday 30 October) Abraham Flexner: The American Medical School

Readings:

Essays:

1. Ronald Numbers, “Physicians, Community, and the Qualified Ascent of the American Medical Profession,” in Major Problems, 298-304.

2. Kenneth M. Ludmerer, “Balancing Educational and Patient Needs in the Creation of the Modern Teaching Hospital,” in Major Problems, 304-309.

3. Janet A. Tighe, “A Lesson in the Political Economics of Medical Education,” in Major Problems, 309-315.

4. Robert P. Hudson, “Abraham Flexner in Perspective: American Medical Education, 1865-1910,” in Sickness & Health, 200-211.

Documents:

1. Educational Reformer Abraham Flexner Writes a Muckraking Report on Medical Schools, 1910, in Major Problems, 277-283.

2. Black Woman Physician Isabella Vandervall laments the Racial and Gender Discrimination in the Program for Reforming Medical Education, 1917, in Major Problems, 283-286.

3. Rockefeller Foundation Reacts to a Growing Concern that Medical Education Reform has Worsened Doctor Shortages in Rural America, 1924, in Major Problems, 292-297.

Class 31 (Friday 1 November) Friday Discussion: Hospitals and Med Schools

Class 32 (Monday 4 November) The Rise of Social Medicine


Readings:

Essays:

1. Rosemary Stevens, “Medicare and the Transformation of the Medical Economy,” in Major Problems, 485-489.

2. Ronald Numbers, “The Third Party: Health Insurance in America,” in Sickness & Health, 269-284.

Documents:

1. A Group of Private Citizens Organizes to Investigate and Reform the American Health Care System, 1932, in Major Problems, 428-429.

2. Texas Congressman Maury Maverick Pleads for a National Cancer Center, 1937, in Major Problems, 429-431.

3. President Truman Confronts Congress about the Need for a National Health Program, 1947, in Major Problems, 435-437.

4. Journalist Bernard Devoto Offers a Public Tour of the AMA’s Annual Meeting and a Glimpse into the Mind of the Medical Profession, 1947, in Major Problems, 437-441.

Class 33 (Wednesday 6 November) World War II, Women, and Venereal Disease Control

Readings:

Essays:

1. Susan Lederer and John Parascandola, “Screening Syphilis: Hollywood, the Public Health Service, and the Fight Against Venereal Disease,” in Major Problems, 444-451.

2. Harry Marks, “The Politics and Protocols of World War II Venereal Disease and Penicillin Research Programs,” in Major Problems, 409-416.

3. John Parascandola, “The Introduction of Antibiotics into Therapeutics,” in Sickness & Health, 102-113.

Documents:

1. Science Writer Paul de Kruif and Surgeon General Thomas Parran Join Forces to Admonish Women About the Dangers of Venereal Disease, 1937, in Major Problems, 431-435.


2. A.N. Richards, head of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, Updates the Medical Community on Promising Wartime Science, 1943, in Major Problems, 394-395.

Class 34 (Friday 8 November) Friday Discussion: Social Medicine & VD

Class 35 (Monday 11 November) Microbes and Morales: The Fight Against Polio

Readings:

Essays:

1. Naomi Rogers, “Dirt, Flies, and Immigrants: Explaining the Epidemiology of Poliomyelitis, 1900-1916,” in Sickness & Health, 543-555.

2. Allan Brandt, “Polio, Politics, Publicity, and Duplicity: the Salk Vaccine and the Protection of the Public,” in Major Problems, 451-457.

Documents:

1. The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis Instructs Parents and Physicians about Human Trials of a New Polio Vaccine, 1954, in Major Problems, 441-444.

Class 36 (Wednesday 13 November) Tuskegee: Medicine and Race in America

Readings:

Essays:

1. Allan Brandt, “Racism and Research: The Case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study,” in Sickness & Health, 392-405.

2. Susan Lederer, “The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment and the Conventions and Practice of Biomedical Research,” in Major Problems, 416-423.

Documents:

1. Prominent African American Anatomy Professor Montagu Cobb Questions the Assumptions of a Leading Textbook About the Biology of Race, 1942, in Major Problems, 366-368.

2. Public Health Service Physicians Publish their Observations of Untreated Syphilis in a Population of African American Men in Macon County, Alabama, 1936, in Major Problems, 390-393.


3. A Tuskegee Doctor in the Field Requests Research Advice from the Public Health Service Office in Washington, DC, 1939, in Major Problems, 393-395.

4. The Elite of World War II Medical Science Rally Support for a Greater Public Investment in Biomedical Research, 1945, in Major Problems, 395-400.

5. A Leading Research Scientist Embraces the Nuremberg Code as a Guide to Ethical Practice in an Age of Human Experimentation, 1953, in Major Problems, 400-403.

6. Public Health Service Physicians Praise Thirty Years of Government Sponsored Human Subject Research in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, 1964, in Major Problems, 403-405.

7. A Private Physician Raises Questions That Go Unanswered About the Morality of the Tuskegee Experiment, 1965, in Major Problems, 405-406.

8. A Physician-Historian-Activist Explores the ‘Legacy of Distrust’ Fostered by the Tuskegee Study, 1993, in Major Problems, 406-409.

Class 37 (Friday 15 November) Friday Discussion: Polio and Tuskegee

Class 38 (Monday 18 November) Health Disparity in the Twentieth Century

Readings:

Essays:

1. Keith Wailoo, “the Power of Genetic Testing in a Conflicted Society,” in Major Problems, 379-386.

2. Daniel Fox and Judith Stone, “Black Lung: Miners’ Militancy and Medical Uncertainty, 1968-1972,” in Sickness & Health, 32-45.

3. David Rothman, “The Doctor as Stranger: Medicine and Public Distrust,” in Major Problems, 524-532.

Documents:

1. Medical Editor warns about the ‘New Medical-Industrial Complex’ 1980, in Major Problems, 461-467.

2. Journalist Laurie Abraham Captures the Human Drama of Medicare, 1993, in Major Problems, 474-477.

3. Feminists Reclaim Women’s Health Care, 1971, in Major Problems, 501-504.

4. Journalist Anne Fadiman Chronicles the Collision of Healing Culture, 1997, in Major Problems, 520-523.


Class 39 (Wednesday 20 November) AIDS in Focus

Readings:

Essays:

1. Allan Brandt, “AIDS in Historical Perspective: Four lessons from the History of Sexually Transmitted Diseases,” in Sickness & Health, 426-435.

2. Amy Sue Bix, “Breast Cancer and AIDS Activism Revolutionize Health Politics,” in Major Problems, 489-498.

3. Bert Hansen, “American Physicians’ ‘Discovery’ of Homosexuals, 1880-1900: A New Diagnosis in a Changing Society,” in Sickness & Health, 13-32.

Documents:

1. Public Health Advocates Plead for AIDS Awareness, 1980s, in Major Problems, 467-469.

2. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop Remembers the ‘Early Days of AIDS,’ 1995, in Major Problems, 481-485.

Class 40 (Friday 22 November) Student Research Paper Presentations

Class 41 (Monday 25 November): Student Research Paper Presentations

THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY: Wednesday 27 November to Sunday 1 December

Class 42 (Monday 2 December): Last Class Period- Conclusions

Final Exam

Steere-Williams, SS’14

HIST 116

Waring Project- Yellow Fever

One of most important and exciting assignments for History 116 this semester is a visit to the Waring Archives, where you will be conducting historical research of your own on primary sources written in the late 18th and early 19th century. While at the Waring we will be examining different types of historical documents- letters, handbills, pamphlets, books- all on the topic of yellow fever. As explained in class and in the assigned readings, yellow fever was a particular scourge to European settlement and colonization efforts involving North America, Africa, and the Caribbean. Biological and cultural ideas about race and immunity towards the disease also helped justify and fuel the Atlantic Slave Trade. In the late 18th and early 19th century the two most important American port cities, Charleston and Philadelphia, were particularly struck with repeated outbreaks of yellow fever, making the disease of local concern to CofC. Yellow fever is thus an important historical lens to understanding European colonization and settlement, transatlantic migration and slavery, and cultural ideas of health, environmentalism, and global politics.

Project Requirements

1. A visit to the Waring Archives on Tuesday January 28th

While at the Waring Archives you will be conducting primary source research on pre-selected archival material. Please be prepared to take notes (pencil only), and to be thinking of how these sources relate to our additional course readings assigned this unit. All of the primary sources that we will be examining will be available on OAKS, as I have already scanned them. Nonetheless, part of your grade for the assignment will be your participation at the Waring Archives.

2. A final Research Paper that addresses the following prompt, which incorporates FIVE Primary Sources from the Waring in addition to the two secondary sources articles posted on OAKS by historians J.R. McNeill and John Duffy. The Final Paper should be 4-6 pages long (double-spaced, 12pt. font) and is due, in-class on Thursday, February 13th. No email submissions will be accepted, and late papers will be deducted 10 points off for each day that they are late.

Waring Project 2

Paper Prompt:

In one of our readings for this unit, historian J.R. McNeill introduces the colonial context of yellow fever outbreaks in the Americas, combining ecological, environmental, and epidemiological evidence. Meanwhile, in our other reading, John Duffy details various outbreaks of and responses to yellow fever in Charleston and the lowcountry in the 18th century. For this assignment, I would like you to use this historical context to engage with at least five primary sources on yellow fever from the 18th and early 19th century to answer the following question; What did public health mean to Americans this time, and how did social, medical, political, and religious concepts direct the public health response to yellow fever?

*Many of our primary sources relate to Charleston and the lowcountry, but successful papers will also situate the colonial, and thus Atlantic World, context for yellow fever outbreaks and their response.

Archival Instructions and Other Advice

Conducting research on primary sources at archives like the Waring remains the staple activity of historians. In this respect it is serious business. We will be dealing with material that is over 200 years old, oftentimes extremely frail, and sometimes the only copy existing in the world. This means that we all need to use the utmost caution when being around and handling historical documents. Carefully turn pages, do not “thumb” through a book, and be extra cautious of the spine of an old manuscript or letter, as they are typically the frailest and easiest to break. Under no circumstance are you allowed to use pens, and no food or drinks are allowed in the Waring Archives. This all falls under the purview of common sense, but remember that we will all be representing the College of Charleston while off campus at the Waring.

Questions to Consider when reading Primary Sources:

- Context: Who is the Author? When and Where was the Source Written and Published?

- Thesis: What are the main Arguments of the author?

- Audience: Who might the intended Audience been for this particular document?

- Intent: What does the document have to say about how Yellow Fever is Caused, Communicated, or where it Originates?

- Overall: How does this document relate to class discussions and class readings

*We will spend additional time in class on Thursday 30 January walking through William Kelleher Storey’s book Writing History, to give you more concrete tools to assess evidence and construct your argument.

**Please also remember to THANK Susan Hoffius, the Curator of the Waring Archives when you leave!