Exploring American Healthcare through 50 Historic Treasures

Tegan Kehoe

doi:10.5771/9781538135471

Exploring American Healthcare through 50 Historic Treasures

Published 2022

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doi.org/10.5771/9781538135471
ISBN print: 978-1-5381-3546-4
ISBN online: 978-1-5381-3547-1
Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham

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Zusammenfassung

Healthcare history is more than leeches and drilling holes in skulls. It is stories of scientific failures and triumphs.

Exploring American Healthcare through 50 Historic Treasures presents a visual and narrative history of health and medicine in the United States, tracing paradigm shifts such as the introduction of anesthesia, the adoption of germ theory, and advances in public health. In this book, museum artifacts are windows into both famous and ordinary people’s experiences with healthcare throughout American history, from patent medicines and faith healing to laboratory science.

With 50 vignette-like chapters and 50 color photographs, Exploring American Healthcare through 50 Historic Treasures showcases little-known objects that illustrate the complexities of our relationship with health, such as a bottle from the short period when the Schlitz beer company sold lager that was supposed to be high in vitamin D during the first vitamin craze. It also highlights famous moments in medicine, such as the discovery of penicillin, as illustrated by a mold-culturing pan. Each artifact tells some piece of the story of how its creators or users approached fundamental questions in health. Some of these questions are, “What causes sickness, and what causes health?” and “How much can everyone master the principles of health, and how much do laypeople need to rely on outside authorities?”

Exploring American Healthcare through 50 Historic Treasures describes the days when surgeons worked on patients without anesthesia and wiped their scalpels on their coats, and the day that EMTs raced to provide help when the Twin Towers were attacked in 2001. The book discusses social and cultural influences that have shaped healthcare, providing insight relevant to today’s problems and colorful anecdotes along the way.

Schlagworte

American history alternative medicine history United States history Healthcare history nursing history public health history medical biography medical museums Medical equipment evolution of medicine drug history

Keywords

history of science social history medical history history of medicine

Chapter Expand | CollapsePage
Preface
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Timeline of Objects
1–4 Introduction 1–4
5–8 Ch01. Unwashed Groins and Child Labor: Cancer in the Early Industrial Age 5–8
9–12 Ch02. George Washington’s Toothbrush 9–12
13–18 Ch03. The Age of the Vaccine 13–18
19–22 Ch04. No Wrong Way to Eat 19–22
23–26 Ch05. A Pioneering Operation 23–26
27–30 Ch06. Healing by a Higher Power 27–30
31–34 Ch07. Morton’s Ether Inhaler and the Advent of Anesthesia 31–34
35–40 Ch08. Bitters and Irregulars: Alternative Healing in the Nineteenth Century 35–40
41–44 Ch09. Blood Shed after the Battle: Bleeding Cups 41–44
45–48 Ch10. Under the Surgeon’s Tent: The Physician in the Civil War 45–48
49–52 Ch11. “Inflammatory Mischief ”Meets Antiseptic Techniques 49–52
53–56 Ch12. Answering the Milk Question 53–56
57–60 Ch13. Skull Shape and Scientific Racism 57–60
61–64 Ch14. “Health and Comfort of Body, with Grace and Beauty of Form” 61–64
65–68 Ch15. East Meets West in the Medicine Cabinet: A Chinese Doctor in America 65–68
69–72 Ch16. The “Cure” That Wasn’t 69–72
73–76 Ch17. Cocaine the Medicine and the Drug 73–76
77–80 Ch18. Don Pedrito, a Legendary Healer 77–80
81–84 Ch19. A Wooden Leg in a Mechanized World 81–84
85–88 Ch20. A Community Doctor’s Legacy 85–88
89–92 Ch21. Carville, the “Louisiana Leper Home” 89–92
93–96 Ch22. The Professional Nurse Only 93–96
97–100 Ch23. The Pandemic of the Century: The 1918 Flu 97–100
101–104 Ch24. The Bubonic Plague Meets Bacteriology 101–104
105–108 Ch25. Safe, Simple, Sure?The Power of X-Rays 105–108
109–112 Ch26. “Are You Playing the Health Game?” 109–112
113–116 Ch27. The Problem with “Good” Genes 113–116
117–120 Ch28. Machinery and Machinations 117–120
121–124 Ch29. Diabetes: A Fatal Disease Becomes Chronic 121–124
125–128 Ch30. The Tools of a Contested Trade: A Midwife’s Kit 125–128
129–132 Ch31. Sipping on the Sunshine Vitamin 129–132
133–136 Ch32. Preemie Care beyond the World’s Fair 133–136
137–140 Ch33. The Penicillin Revolution 137–140
141–144 Ch34. Blood Transfusion Comes of Age 141–144
145–148 Ch35. Insuring and Ensuring Health 145–148
149–152 Ch36. Nursing at War 149–152
153–156 Ch37. The Science and Politics of Inhaling Dust 153–156
157–162 Ch38. Health Uplifted, Health Upended 157–162
163–166 Ch39. DDT: The Double-Edged Sword 163–166
167–170 Ch40. The Iron Lung and the Polio Epidemics 167–170
171–174 Ch41. Two Eras of Change in Pharmacy 171–174
175–180 Ch42. More Than a Metaphor: The Straitjacket 175–180
181–184 Ch43. Changing Ways of Looking at the Gut 181–184
185–188 Ch44. The Pill’s New Era of Choice (For Some) 185–188
189–192 Ch45. Smoking under Scrutiny 189–192
193–196 Ch46. Ed Roberts and the Independent Living Movement 193–196
197–200 Ch47. Bypassing the Heart 197–200
201–204 Ch48. False Hopelessness or False Hope: The Early Years of AIDS 201–204
205–208 Ch49. September 11 and Emergency Response 205–208
209–212 Ch50. Saving Lives amid the Opioid Crisis 209–212
213–214 Conclusion 213–214
215–248 Notes 215–248
249–274 Bibliography 249–274
275–286 Index 275–286
287–290 About the Author 287–290

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