Health and Healing in America

For Wednesday’s class, read the first two chapters of Burnham’s book, Health Care in America.

Use these discussion questions to organize your reading and note-taking and prepare for the day’s discussion / lecture.

Want more? Jim Cox, “That Quacking Sound in Colonial America” (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Spr 2004)

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Wed 3/29: we finish up the Pox book by looking at chapters 6-8.

Starting the week of April 3, we will examine the past and present of US health care policy … obviously a very timely topic. I’d advise paying more attention to the news about health care policy negotiations than you might ordinarily during the next couple of weeks, as this story is unfolding dynamically day to day. Continue reading →

Brandeis history professor Michael Willrich‘s book about smallpox traces the complex interactions between medicine, public health, government and politics in the Progressive Era. We will read this book over several weeks, from March 6 to March 27. Please bring the book to class on the days we’re discussing the assigned chapters. Continue reading →

Brandeis history professor Michael Willrich‘s book about smallpox traces the complex interactions between medicine, public health, government and politics in the Progressive Era. We will read this book over several weeks, from March 6 to March 27. Please bring the book to class on the days we’re discussing the assigned chapters. Continue reading →

On your own, enjoy exploring some of these links to give you a flavor for the Progressive Era and the interwoven public health, women’s rights and labor reform movements. Continue reading →

Our next three class sessions all bring us up through the 19th century to the early 20th century in medical / health practices, professionalization, and technological and scientific progress. Continue reading →

Update: Class is cancelled on Monday, Feb 13 due to snow. This week’s readings will BOTH be discussed in Wednesday’s class (Foucault, “Birth of the Clinic” and Burnham, Ch 3). Reminder: Diagnosis: History paper is due on Wednesday, Feb 15. Continue reading →