By John C. G. Röhl (NHC Fellow, 1997–98) and David Hunt First published in 1998, this is a study, based on DNA sequencing, that traces the porphyria stain through the genealogical maze of Europe's royal dynasties to the present day descendants of the Houses of Hanover and Windsor, and the consequences it might have had … Continued
Edited by Lilian R. Furst (NHC Fellow, 1988–89) and Peter W. Graham This book explores the various manifestations of eating disorders in literature, including cannibalism, the magic attributes of food, religiously motivated fasting, and children's eating problems, from the classical period to Toni Morrison, in American, British, and European texts. The underlying, unifying theme is … Continued
By Nancy Tomes (NHC Fellow, 1999–00; 2022–23) In a work that spans the twentieth century, Nancy Tomes questions the popular–and largely unexamined–idea that in order to get good health care, people must learn to shop for it. Remaking the American Patient explores the consequences of the consumer economy and American medicine having come of age at exactly … Continued
By James H. Sweet (NHC Fellow, 2006–07) Between 1730 and 1750, powerful healer and vodun priest Domingos Álvares traversed the colonial Atlantic world like few Africans of his time–from Africa to South America to Europe–addressing the profound alienation of warfare, capitalism, and the African slave trade through the language of health and healing. In Domingos Álvares, … Continued
By Hermione de Almeida (NHC Fellow, 1982–83) Using original research in scientific treatises, philosophical manuscripts, and political documents, this pioneering study describes the neglected era of revolutionary medicine in Europe through the writings of the English poet and physician, John Keats. De Almeida explores the four primary concerns of Romantic medicine–the physician's task, the meaning … Continued
By Allen R. Dyer (NHC Fellow, 1981–82) Ethical questions lie at the heart of all psychiatric dilemmas. Ethics and Psychiatry examines the day-to-day issues affecting medical ethics, such as confidentiality, informed con-sent and moral perfection. The book focuses on the ethics of professional advertising; examines the importance of privacy of the doctor-patient relationship, and illustrates … Continued
By Arleen Marcia Tuchman (NHC Fellow, 1995–96) German-born Marie Zakrzewska (1829-1902) was one of the most prominent female physicians of nineteenth-century America. Best known for creating a modern hospital and medical education program for women, Zakrzewska battled against the gendering of science and the restrictive definitions of her sex. In Science Has No Sex, Arleen Tuchman … Continued
By Sharon T. Strocchia (NHC Fellow, 1998–99; 2015–16) In Renaissance Italy women played a more central role in providing health care than historians have thus far acknowledged. Women from all walks of life—from household caregivers and nurses to nuns working as apothecaries—drove the Italian medical economy. In convent pharmacies, pox hospitals, girls’ shelters, and homes, … Continued
By Timothy S. Miller (NHC Fellow, 1982–83) Medical historians have traditionally claimed that modern hospitals emerged during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Premodern hospitals, according to many scholars, existed mainly as refuges for the desperately poor and sick, providing patients with little or no medical care. Challenging this view in a compelling survey … Continued
By Judith Farquhar (NHC Fellow, 2007–08; 2015–16) and Lili Lai In the early 2000s, the central government of China encouraged all of the nation’s registered minorities to “salvage, sort, synthesize, and elevate” folk medical knowledges in an effort to create local health care systems comparable to the nationally supported institutions of traditional Chinese medicine. Gathering Medicines bears … Continued