Health and Healing in America

This week, we begin reading Michael Willrich’s thorough and well-written account of smallpox epidemics and eradication campaigns at the turn of the 20th century. Think about how to connect the story Willrich tells in such detail with the overall framework we’ve gotten from Rutkow: the rise of bacteriology, scientific thinking, public health, teaching hospitals, and other institutions of modern medicine. And notice, too, how race and class intersect with this story in perhaps unexpected ways.

For Mon 3/11 – Read Pox Prologue and Chapter 1

For Wed 3/13 – Read Pox Chapters 2-3

Over spring break, read Pox Chapters 4-5 for Mon 3/25

Reminder: the Disease Project poster and presentation day is Wed 3/27 of the week we come back from break.

I mentioned “radium girls” in class – here are a couple of links for more information.

Alan Bellows, “Undark and the Radium Girls,” Damn Interesting #241
Deborah Blum, “The Radium Girls,” Speakeasy Science 24 March 2011

There’s also a play based on their experiences, “These Shining Lives” (the photo is from a recent Minnesota production of the show).

See also this eyepopping post for more on the early 20th century fascination with radium and radiation in advertising and product names.