Medicine and Society: Health, Healers, and Hospitals

Catalog description

How have notions of health and healing changed over time in the United States? Why are doctors seen as professional "heroes"? Why are hospitals so central to patient care and professional training? How has American healthcare developed into its present form? This course explores the history of American medicine and its relationship to American society. By exploring major developments in the history of American medicine and public health, students will examine the voices of historical actors, including physicians, patients, activists, policymakers, and researchers. In analyzing these voices, students will learn what was at stake as Americans confronted diseases and struggled to explain and cure them. Students will also examine medical research, education, disease patterns, patient experiences, and technologies from the colonial period to the present day. Readings include a range of primary accounts and secondary sources of medicine and health in America.