Medicine and Disease in Modern Society

Catalog description

Explores the history of medicine and disease in Europe and America from the late eighteenth century to the present. The focus is on the rise of scientific medicine emphasizing the methods of social, intellectual, and cultural history. This approach rejects traditional progressionist accounts of the rise of scientific medicine and seeks to place medicine in a wider context. The predominant theme is that of the increasing influence of medical theory and medical institutions on society, and the growing concern of the state with public health. The course includes an exploration of the connections between medicine and ideas about class, race, gender, nation, and disease. This course requires no previous knowledge of modern history.