Mark Jackson
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199588626
- eISBN:
- 9780191750779
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588626.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
We are living in a stressful world. Approximately half of all British employees suffer from workplace stress and over 13 million working days are lost through stress each year, costing the economy ...
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We are living in a stressful world. Approximately half of all British employees suffer from workplace stress and over 13 million working days are lost through stress each year, costing the economy over £4 billion per annum. Stress has had a similar impact throughout the modern world: in both developed and developing countries, stress is now the most commonly cited cause of sickness absence from work and stress-related conditions, such as depression, heart disease and cancer, constitute a substantial source of personal ill-health and economic burden. Focusing on the evolution of biological and psychological understandings of stress during the twentieth century, The Age of Stress explores the relationship between scientific formulations and personal experiences of stress, on the one hand, and socio-political and cultural contexts, on the other. The book argues that scientific theories of stress and disease were strongly influenced not only by laboratory studies of homeostasis, but also by wider social, cultural and intellectual currents: the impact of economic depression during the inter-war years; modernist commitments to social reform; concerns about the consequences of military conflict during and after the Second World War; fluctuating global anxieties about political instability and the threat of terrorism during the Cold War; scientific studies of cybernetics; socio-biological accounts of behaviour; and counter-cultural arguments urging consumers to resist the incipient pressures of modern capitalism. The science of stress that emerged in this climate of anxiety was driven and shaped by, and in turn served to structure and direct, the search for individual and collective happiness in a troubled world.Less
We are living in a stressful world. Approximately half of all British employees suffer from workplace stress and over 13 million working days are lost through stress each year, costing the economy over £4 billion per annum. Stress has had a similar impact throughout the modern world: in both developed and developing countries, stress is now the most commonly cited cause of sickness absence from work and stress-related conditions, such as depression, heart disease and cancer, constitute a substantial source of personal ill-health and economic burden. Focusing on the evolution of biological and psychological understandings of stress during the twentieth century, The Age of Stress explores the relationship between scientific formulations and personal experiences of stress, on the one hand, and socio-political and cultural contexts, on the other. The book argues that scientific theories of stress and disease were strongly influenced not only by laboratory studies of homeostasis, but also by wider social, cultural and intellectual currents: the impact of economic depression during the inter-war years; modernist commitments to social reform; concerns about the consequences of military conflict during and after the Second World War; fluctuating global anxieties about political instability and the threat of terrorism during the Cold War; scientific studies of cybernetics; socio-biological accounts of behaviour; and counter-cultural arguments urging consumers to resist the incipient pressures of modern capitalism. The science of stress that emerged in this climate of anxiety was driven and shaped by, and in turn served to structure and direct, the search for individual and collective happiness in a troubled world.
Geoffrey J. Martin
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780195336023
- eISBN:
- 9780190269920
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336023.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Commencing in the 1820’s, American scholars took learning in Germany. There they confronted forms of geography in the universities, and learned of the normal school tradition. Upon their return to ...
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Commencing in the 1820’s, American scholars took learning in Germany. There they confronted forms of geography in the universities, and learned of the normal school tradition. Upon their return to North America the normal school was introduced and with it came an early and simplistic variety of geography. Gradually courses geographic in nature began to emerge from the geology offering. Binomial departments, geology-geography, began to emerge. Early content of the geographic offering included delimitation of both the physiographic province and the geographic region. Then came study of economic geography, and development of environmentalism. The 14-18 war involved geography and geographers both on the battlefield and in negotiations with other delegations for the terms of peace. Then the AGS completed a map of Hispanic America (1—1 million) prior to 1945. The Society also made an extended study of the pioneer fringe and pioneer belts in the context of establishing a science of settlement, all of which had relevance for the redistribution of displaced persons resultant to World War II. It was in the 1920’s that both ecologic and political factors began earnestly to create individual genres of the geographic, all of which encouraged Bowman, and more especially R. Hartshorne to write books concerning the nature of geography. Substantial numbers of geographers were employed in World War II, largely in OSS. While in Washington DC, many active geographers who were not AAG members felt disenfranchised. Rigorous competitive activity on their part led to amalgamation of two organizations, the Association of American Geographers and the American Society for Professional Geographers. Then came a renewed quest for definition of the field. “Envoi” concludes the work with guidance to a multiplicity of archival holdings, their lodgment, extent and significance.Less
Commencing in the 1820’s, American scholars took learning in Germany. There they confronted forms of geography in the universities, and learned of the normal school tradition. Upon their return to North America the normal school was introduced and with it came an early and simplistic variety of geography. Gradually courses geographic in nature began to emerge from the geology offering. Binomial departments, geology-geography, began to emerge. Early content of the geographic offering included delimitation of both the physiographic province and the geographic region. Then came study of economic geography, and development of environmentalism. The 14-18 war involved geography and geographers both on the battlefield and in negotiations with other delegations for the terms of peace. Then the AGS completed a map of Hispanic America (1—1 million) prior to 1945. The Society also made an extended study of the pioneer fringe and pioneer belts in the context of establishing a science of settlement, all of which had relevance for the redistribution of displaced persons resultant to World War II. It was in the 1920’s that both ecologic and political factors began earnestly to create individual genres of the geographic, all of which encouraged Bowman, and more especially R. Hartshorne to write books concerning the nature of geography. Substantial numbers of geographers were employed in World War II, largely in OSS. While in Washington DC, many active geographers who were not AAG members felt disenfranchised. Rigorous competitive activity on their part led to amalgamation of two organizations, the Association of American Geographers and the American Society for Professional Geographers. Then came a renewed quest for definition of the field. “Envoi” concludes the work with guidance to a multiplicity of archival holdings, their lodgment, extent and significance.
Marina Paola Banchetti-Robino
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- July 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780197502501
- eISBN:
- 9780197502532
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197502501.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This book examines the way in which Robert Boyle seeks to accommodate his complex chemical philosophy within the framework of a mechanistic theory of matter. More specifically, the book proposes that ...
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This book examines the way in which Robert Boyle seeks to accommodate his complex chemical philosophy within the framework of a mechanistic theory of matter. More specifically, the book proposes that Boyle regards chemical qualities as properties that emerge from the mechanistic structure of chymical atoms. Within Boyle’s chemical ontology, chymical atoms are structured concretions of particles that Boyle regards as chemically elementary entities, that is, as chemical wholes that resist experimental analysis. Although this interpretation of Boyle’s chemical philosophy has already been suggested by other Boyle scholars, the present book provides a sustained philosophical argument to demonstrate that, for Boyle, chemical properties are dispositional, relational, emergent, and supervenient properties. This argument is strengthened by a detailed mereological analysis of Boylean chymical atoms that establishes the kind of theory of wholes and parts that is most consistent with his emergentist conception of chemical properties. The emergentist position that is being attributed to Boyle supports his view that chemical reactions resist direct explanation in terms of the mechanistic properties of fundamental particles, as well as his position regarding the scientific autonomy of chemistry from mechanics and physics.Less
This book examines the way in which Robert Boyle seeks to accommodate his complex chemical philosophy within the framework of a mechanistic theory of matter. More specifically, the book proposes that Boyle regards chemical qualities as properties that emerge from the mechanistic structure of chymical atoms. Within Boyle’s chemical ontology, chymical atoms are structured concretions of particles that Boyle regards as chemically elementary entities, that is, as chemical wholes that resist experimental analysis. Although this interpretation of Boyle’s chemical philosophy has already been suggested by other Boyle scholars, the present book provides a sustained philosophical argument to demonstrate that, for Boyle, chemical properties are dispositional, relational, emergent, and supervenient properties. This argument is strengthened by a detailed mereological analysis of Boylean chymical atoms that establishes the kind of theory of wholes and parts that is most consistent with his emergentist conception of chemical properties. The emergentist position that is being attributed to Boyle supports his view that chemical reactions resist direct explanation in terms of the mechanistic properties of fundamental particles, as well as his position regarding the scientific autonomy of chemistry from mechanics and physics.
Samiksha Sehrawat
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780198096603
- eISBN:
- 9780199082773
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198096603.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This meticulously researched book traces the introduction of colonial medical care, and its rapid expansion between 1840 and 1920. By funding medical care, the colonial state forged a new ...
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This meticulously researched book traces the introduction of colonial medical care, and its rapid expansion between 1840 and 1920. By funding medical care, the colonial state forged a new relationship between health and governance that raised many questions. How was medical care to be funded? Was the state responsible for providing medical care? What role were the voluntary and private sectors to play? The colonial state sought to transplant British forms of medical philanthropy to India. Participation in voluntarism and a public associational culture associated with medical philanthropy were meant to improve Indian society. Over the twentieth century, as the British state moved towards acknowledging the importance of medical care in India, the colonial state used decentralization to limit medical expenditure. Government and municipal expenditure on public medical infrastructure led to increasing acceptance of Western medicine by Indian patients and popularity of surgical specializations, but neglected rural patients. This book—a first of its kind—examines how gender and ethnicity shaped colonial hospitals in north India. The characterization of Indian society as irrational and bound to custom shaped the construction of both male and female patients. The failure of the Dufferin Fund to raise sufficient funds for a Women’s Medical Service exposed the limitations of the government’s reliance on the voluntary sector for medical provision. Reform of army hospitals was also stalled by prioritizing economy over efficiency. The underfunding of colonial medical care left a legacy of poor medical provision, regional disparities, and over-reliance on the private and voluntary sectors.Less
This meticulously researched book traces the introduction of colonial medical care, and its rapid expansion between 1840 and 1920. By funding medical care, the colonial state forged a new relationship between health and governance that raised many questions. How was medical care to be funded? Was the state responsible for providing medical care? What role were the voluntary and private sectors to play? The colonial state sought to transplant British forms of medical philanthropy to India. Participation in voluntarism and a public associational culture associated with medical philanthropy were meant to improve Indian society. Over the twentieth century, as the British state moved towards acknowledging the importance of medical care in India, the colonial state used decentralization to limit medical expenditure. Government and municipal expenditure on public medical infrastructure led to increasing acceptance of Western medicine by Indian patients and popularity of surgical specializations, but neglected rural patients. This book—a first of its kind—examines how gender and ethnicity shaped colonial hospitals in north India. The characterization of Indian society as irrational and bound to custom shaped the construction of both male and female patients. The failure of the Dufferin Fund to raise sufficient funds for a Women’s Medical Service exposed the limitations of the government’s reliance on the voluntary sector for medical provision. Reform of army hospitals was also stalled by prioritizing economy over efficiency. The underfunding of colonial medical care left a legacy of poor medical provision, regional disparities, and over-reliance on the private and voluntary sectors.
Roberta Bivins
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198725282
- eISBN:
- 9780191792625
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198725282.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
It was only a coincidence that the NHS and the Empire Windrush (carrying 492 migrants from Britain’s West Indian colonies) arrived together. As the ship’s passengers disembarked in June 1948, frantic ...
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It was only a coincidence that the NHS and the Empire Windrush (carrying 492 migrants from Britain’s West Indian colonies) arrived together. As the ship’s passengers disembarked in June 1948, frantic preparations were already underway for the July ‘Appointed Day’ when the nation’s new National Health Service would first open its doors. Yet the relationship between immigration and the NHS rapidly attained—and has enduringly retained—notable political and cultural significance. Both the Appointed Day and the post-war arrival of colonial and Commonwealth immigrants heralded transformative change. Together, they reshaped daily life in Britain and notions of ‘Britishness’ alike. The reciprocal impacts of post-war immigration and medicine in post-war Britain, however, have yet to be explored. This book casts new light on a period only now attracting significant historical interest. It draws attention to the importance—but also the limitations—of medical knowledge, approaches and professionals in mediating post-war British responses to race, ethnicity, and the emergence of new and distinctive ethnic communities. By presenting a wealth of newly available or previously ignored archival evidence, it interrogates and re-balances the political history of Britain’s response to New Commonwealth immigration. The book uses a set of linked case-studies to map the persistence of ‘race’ in British culture and medicine alike; the limits of belonging in a multi-ethnic welfare state; and the emergence of new and resolutely ‘unimagined’ communities of patients, researchers, clinicians, policy-makers and citizens within the medical state and its global contact zones.Less
It was only a coincidence that the NHS and the Empire Windrush (carrying 492 migrants from Britain’s West Indian colonies) arrived together. As the ship’s passengers disembarked in June 1948, frantic preparations were already underway for the July ‘Appointed Day’ when the nation’s new National Health Service would first open its doors. Yet the relationship between immigration and the NHS rapidly attained—and has enduringly retained—notable political and cultural significance. Both the Appointed Day and the post-war arrival of colonial and Commonwealth immigrants heralded transformative change. Together, they reshaped daily life in Britain and notions of ‘Britishness’ alike. The reciprocal impacts of post-war immigration and medicine in post-war Britain, however, have yet to be explored. This book casts new light on a period only now attracting significant historical interest. It draws attention to the importance—but also the limitations—of medical knowledge, approaches and professionals in mediating post-war British responses to race, ethnicity, and the emergence of new and distinctive ethnic communities. By presenting a wealth of newly available or previously ignored archival evidence, it interrogates and re-balances the political history of Britain’s response to New Commonwealth immigration. The book uses a set of linked case-studies to map the persistence of ‘race’ in British culture and medicine alike; the limits of belonging in a multi-ethnic welfare state; and the emergence of new and resolutely ‘unimagined’ communities of patients, researchers, clinicians, policy-makers and citizens within the medical state and its global contact zones.
Larry Lankton
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195083576
- eISBN:
- 9780199854158
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195083576.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Concentrating on technology, economics, labor, and social history, this book documents the full life cycle of one of America's great mineral ranges from the 1840s to the 1960s. The book examines the ...
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Concentrating on technology, economics, labor, and social history, this book documents the full life cycle of one of America's great mineral ranges from the 1840s to the 1960s. The book examines the workers' world underground, but is equally concerned with the mining communities on the surface. For the first fifty years of development, these mining communities remained remarkably harmonious, even while new, large companies obliterated traditional forms of organization and work within the industry. By 1890, however, the Lake Superior copper industry of upper Michigan started facing many challenges, including strong economic competition and a declining profit margin; growing worker dissatisfaction with both living and working conditions; and erosion of the companies' hegemony in a district they once controlled. The book traces technological changes within the mines and provides a thorough investigation of mine accidents and safety. It then focuses on social and labor history, dealing especially with the issue of how company paternalism exerted social control over the work force.Less
Concentrating on technology, economics, labor, and social history, this book documents the full life cycle of one of America's great mineral ranges from the 1840s to the 1960s. The book examines the workers' world underground, but is equally concerned with the mining communities on the surface. For the first fifty years of development, these mining communities remained remarkably harmonious, even while new, large companies obliterated traditional forms of organization and work within the industry. By 1890, however, the Lake Superior copper industry of upper Michigan started facing many challenges, including strong economic competition and a declining profit margin; growing worker dissatisfaction with both living and working conditions; and erosion of the companies' hegemony in a district they once controlled. The book traces technological changes within the mines and provides a thorough investigation of mine accidents and safety. It then focuses on social and labor history, dealing especially with the issue of how company paternalism exerted social control over the work force.
Irvine Loudon
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198229971
- eISBN:
- 9780191678950
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198229971.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This book studies maternal care and maternal mortality. Over the last two hundred years different countries developed quite different systems of maternal care. This book is an analysis, firmly ...
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This book studies maternal care and maternal mortality. Over the last two hundred years different countries developed quite different systems of maternal care. This book is an analysis, firmly grounded in the available statistics, of the evolution of those systems between 1800 and 1950 in Britain, the US, Australia and New Zealand, and continental Europe. The book examines the effectiveness of various forms of maternal care by means of the measurement of maternal mortality — the number of women who died as a result of childbirth. The study answers a number of questions: What was the relative risk of a home or hospital delivery, or a delivery by a midwife as opposed to a doctor? What was the safest country in which to have a baby, and what were the factors which accounted for enormous international differences? Why, against all expectations, did maternal mortality fail to decline significantly until the late 1930s?Less
This book studies maternal care and maternal mortality. Over the last two hundred years different countries developed quite different systems of maternal care. This book is an analysis, firmly grounded in the available statistics, of the evolution of those systems between 1800 and 1950 in Britain, the US, Australia and New Zealand, and continental Europe. The book examines the effectiveness of various forms of maternal care by means of the measurement of maternal mortality — the number of women who died as a result of childbirth. The study answers a number of questions: What was the relative risk of a home or hospital delivery, or a delivery by a midwife as opposed to a doctor? What was the safest country in which to have a baby, and what were the factors which accounted for enormous international differences? Why, against all expectations, did maternal mortality fail to decline significantly until the late 1930s?
Richard Haw
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- March 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190663902
- eISBN:
- 9780190092870
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190663902.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
John Roebling was one of the nineteenth century’s most brilliant engineers, ingenious inventors, successful manufacturers, and fascinating personalities. Raised in a German backwater amid the ...
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John Roebling was one of the nineteenth century’s most brilliant engineers, ingenious inventors, successful manufacturers, and fascinating personalities. Raised in a German backwater amid the war-torn chaos of the Napoleonic Wars, he immigrated to the United States in 1831, where he became wealthy and acclaimed, eventually receiving a carte-blanche contract to build one of the nineteenth century’s most stupendous and daring works of engineering: a gigantic suspension bridge to span the East River between New York and Brooklyn. In between, he thought, wrote, and worked tirelessly. He dug canals and surveyed railroads; he planned communities and founded new industries. Horace Greeley called him “a model immigrant”; generations later, F. Scott Fitzgerald worked on a script for the movie version of his life.
Like his finest creations, Roebling was held together by a delicate balance of countervailing forces. On the surface, his life was exemplary and his accomplishments legion. As an immigrant and employer, he was respected throughout the world. As an engineer, his works profoundly altered the physical landscape of America. He was a voracious reader, a fervent abolitionist, and an engaged social commentator. His understanding of the natural world, however, bordered on the occult, and his opinions about medicine are best described as medieval. For a man of science and great self-certainty, he was also remarkably quick to seize on a whole host of fads and foolish trends. Yet Roebling spun these strands together. Throughout his life, he believed in the moral application of science and technology, that bridges—along with other great works of connection, the Atlantic cable, the Transcontinental Railroad—could help bring people together, erase divisions, and heal wounds. Like Walt Whitman, Roebling was deeply committed to the creation of a more perfect union, forged from the raw materials of the continent.
John Roebling was a complex, deeply divided, yet undoubtedly influential figure, and his biography illuminates not only his works but also the world of nineteenth-century America. Roebling’s engineering feats are well known, but the man himself is not; for alongside the drama of large-scale construction lies an equally rich drama of intellectual and social development and crisis, one that mirrored and reflected the great forces, trials, and failures of the American nineteenth century.Less
John Roebling was one of the nineteenth century’s most brilliant engineers, ingenious inventors, successful manufacturers, and fascinating personalities. Raised in a German backwater amid the war-torn chaos of the Napoleonic Wars, he immigrated to the United States in 1831, where he became wealthy and acclaimed, eventually receiving a carte-blanche contract to build one of the nineteenth century’s most stupendous and daring works of engineering: a gigantic suspension bridge to span the East River between New York and Brooklyn. In between, he thought, wrote, and worked tirelessly. He dug canals and surveyed railroads; he planned communities and founded new industries. Horace Greeley called him “a model immigrant”; generations later, F. Scott Fitzgerald worked on a script for the movie version of his life.
Like his finest creations, Roebling was held together by a delicate balance of countervailing forces. On the surface, his life was exemplary and his accomplishments legion. As an immigrant and employer, he was respected throughout the world. As an engineer, his works profoundly altered the physical landscape of America. He was a voracious reader, a fervent abolitionist, and an engaged social commentator. His understanding of the natural world, however, bordered on the occult, and his opinions about medicine are best described as medieval. For a man of science and great self-certainty, he was also remarkably quick to seize on a whole host of fads and foolish trends. Yet Roebling spun these strands together. Throughout his life, he believed in the moral application of science and technology, that bridges—along with other great works of connection, the Atlantic cable, the Transcontinental Railroad—could help bring people together, erase divisions, and heal wounds. Like Walt Whitman, Roebling was deeply committed to the creation of a more perfect union, forged from the raw materials of the continent.
John Roebling was a complex, deeply divided, yet undoubtedly influential figure, and his biography illuminates not only his works but also the world of nineteenth-century America. Roebling’s engineering feats are well known, but the man himself is not; for alongside the drama of large-scale construction lies an equally rich drama of intellectual and social development and crisis, one that mirrored and reflected the great forces, trials, and failures of the American nineteenth century.
Anne Hardy
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203773
- eISBN:
- 9780191675966
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203773.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This book represents an advance in the historical study of death and disease in the 19th century. It draws on a wide range of public health records and provides a detailed epidemiological ...
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This book represents an advance in the historical study of death and disease in the 19th century. It draws on a wide range of public health records and provides a detailed epidemiological investigation of the behaviour of the infectious diseases in the Victorian city. Whooping cough and measles, scarlet fever and diptheria, smallpox, typhus, typhoid, and tuberculosis ravaged millions of families and made life desperately uncertain a hundred years ago; today they have almost ceased to trouble the developed world. The book explores the factors that helped to reduce their fatality, focusing particularly on the role of preventive medicine, and on the local and domestic circumstances that affected the behaviour of the different diseases. This book is a contribution to the historical debate that arose from Thomas McKeown's theory of modern population growth, and it also extends current understanding of the ways in which Victorian society — both lay and medical — coped with the problems of endemic and epidemic infectious disease.Less
This book represents an advance in the historical study of death and disease in the 19th century. It draws on a wide range of public health records and provides a detailed epidemiological investigation of the behaviour of the infectious diseases in the Victorian city. Whooping cough and measles, scarlet fever and diptheria, smallpox, typhus, typhoid, and tuberculosis ravaged millions of families and made life desperately uncertain a hundred years ago; today they have almost ceased to trouble the developed world. The book explores the factors that helped to reduce their fatality, focusing particularly on the role of preventive medicine, and on the local and domestic circumstances that affected the behaviour of the different diseases. This book is a contribution to the historical debate that arose from Thomas McKeown's theory of modern population growth, and it also extends current understanding of the ways in which Victorian society — both lay and medical — coped with the problems of endemic and epidemic infectious disease.
Samuel K. Cohn, Jr.
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198819660
- eISBN:
- 9780191859984
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198819660.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, Social History
This book challenges a dominant hypothesis in the study of epidemics. From an interdisciplinary array of scholars, a consensus has emerged: invariably, epidemics in past times provoked class hatred, ...
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This book challenges a dominant hypothesis in the study of epidemics. From an interdisciplinary array of scholars, a consensus has emerged: invariably, epidemics in past times provoked class hatred, blame of the ‘other’, or victimization of the diseases’ victims. It is also claimed that when diseases were mysterious, without cures or preventive measures, they more readily provoked ‘sinister connotations’. The evidence for these assumptions, however, comes from a handful of examples—the Black Death, the Great Pox at the end of the sixteenth century, cholera riots of the 1830s, and AIDS, centred almost exclusively on the US experience. By investigating thousands of descriptions of epidemics, reaching back before the fifth-century BCE Plague of Athens to the eruption of Ebola in 2014, this study traces epidemics’ socio-psychological consequences across time and discovers a radically different picture. First, scholars, especially post-AIDS, have missed a fundamental aspect of the history of epidemics: their remarkable power to unify societies across class, race, ethnicity, and religion, spurring self-sacrifice and compassion. Second, hatred and violence cannot be relegated to a time when diseases were mysterious, before the ‘laboratory revolution’ of the late nineteenth century: in fact, modernity was the great incubator of a disease–hate nexus. Third, even with diseases that have tended to provoke hatred, such as smallpox, poliomyelitis, plague, and cholera, blaming ‘the other’ or victimizing disease bearers has been rare. Instead, the history of epidemics and their socio-psychological consequences has been richer and more varied than scholars and public intellectuals have heretofore allowed.Less
This book challenges a dominant hypothesis in the study of epidemics. From an interdisciplinary array of scholars, a consensus has emerged: invariably, epidemics in past times provoked class hatred, blame of the ‘other’, or victimization of the diseases’ victims. It is also claimed that when diseases were mysterious, without cures or preventive measures, they more readily provoked ‘sinister connotations’. The evidence for these assumptions, however, comes from a handful of examples—the Black Death, the Great Pox at the end of the sixteenth century, cholera riots of the 1830s, and AIDS, centred almost exclusively on the US experience. By investigating thousands of descriptions of epidemics, reaching back before the fifth-century BCE Plague of Athens to the eruption of Ebola in 2014, this study traces epidemics’ socio-psychological consequences across time and discovers a radically different picture. First, scholars, especially post-AIDS, have missed a fundamental aspect of the history of epidemics: their remarkable power to unify societies across class, race, ethnicity, and religion, spurring self-sacrifice and compassion. Second, hatred and violence cannot be relegated to a time when diseases were mysterious, before the ‘laboratory revolution’ of the late nineteenth century: in fact, modernity was the great incubator of a disease–hate nexus. Third, even with diseases that have tended to provoke hatred, such as smallpox, poliomyelitis, plague, and cholera, blaming ‘the other’ or victimizing disease bearers has been rare. Instead, the history of epidemics and their socio-psychological consequences has been richer and more varied than scholars and public intellectuals have heretofore allowed.
Paul Weindling
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206910
- eISBN:
- 9780191677373
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206910.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
How did typhus come to be viewed as a ‘Jewish disease’ and what was the connection between the anti-typhus measures during the First World War and the Nazi gas chambers and other genocidal medical ...
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How did typhus come to be viewed as a ‘Jewish disease’ and what was the connection between the anti-typhus measures during the First World War and the Nazi gas chambers and other genocidal medical practices in the Second World War? This book provides valuable new insight into the history of German medicine in its reaction to the international fight against typhus and the perceived threat of epidemics from the East in the early part of the 20th century. It examines how German bacteriology became increasingly racialised, and how it sought to eradicate the disease by eradication of the perceived carriers. Delousing became a key feature of Nazi preventive medicine during the Holocaust, and gassing a favoured means of eradication of typhus.Less
How did typhus come to be viewed as a ‘Jewish disease’ and what was the connection between the anti-typhus measures during the First World War and the Nazi gas chambers and other genocidal medical practices in the Second World War? This book provides valuable new insight into the history of German medicine in its reaction to the international fight against typhus and the perceived threat of epidemics from the East in the early part of the 20th century. It examines how German bacteriology became increasingly racialised, and how it sought to eradicate the disease by eradication of the perceived carriers. Delousing became a key feature of Nazi preventive medicine during the Holocaust, and gassing a favoured means of eradication of typhus.
Jessica Meyer
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- March 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198824169
- eISBN:
- 9780191862762
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198824169.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Military History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
An Equal Burden forms the first scholarly study of the Army Medical Services in the First World War to focus on the roles and experiences of the men of the ranks of the Royal Army Medical Corps ...
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An Equal Burden forms the first scholarly study of the Army Medical Services in the First World War to focus on the roles and experiences of the men of the ranks of the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). These men, through their work as stretcher-bearers and orderlies, provided a range of labour, both physical and emotional, in aid of the sick and wounded. They were not professional medical caregivers, yet were called upon to provide medical care, however rudimentary; they served in uniform, under military discipline, yet were forbidden, as non-combatants, from carrying weapons. Their service as men in wartime was thus unique. Structured both chronologically and thematically, this study examines the work that RAMC rankers undertook and its importance to the running of the chain of medical evacuation. It additionally explores the gendered status of these men within the medical, military, and cultural hierarchies of a society engaged in total war, locating their service within the context of that of doctors, female nurses, and combatant servicemen. Through close readings of official documents, personal papers, and cultural representations, both verbal and visual, it argues that the ranks of the RAMC formed a space in which non-commissioned servicemen, through their many roles, defined and redefined medical caregiving as men’s work in wartime.Less
An Equal Burden forms the first scholarly study of the Army Medical Services in the First World War to focus on the roles and experiences of the men of the ranks of the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). These men, through their work as stretcher-bearers and orderlies, provided a range of labour, both physical and emotional, in aid of the sick and wounded. They were not professional medical caregivers, yet were called upon to provide medical care, however rudimentary; they served in uniform, under military discipline, yet were forbidden, as non-combatants, from carrying weapons. Their service as men in wartime was thus unique. Structured both chronologically and thematically, this study examines the work that RAMC rankers undertook and its importance to the running of the chain of medical evacuation. It additionally explores the gendered status of these men within the medical, military, and cultural hierarchies of a society engaged in total war, locating their service within the context of that of doctors, female nurses, and combatant servicemen. Through close readings of official documents, personal papers, and cultural representations, both verbal and visual, it argues that the ranks of the RAMC formed a space in which non-commissioned servicemen, through their many roles, defined and redefined medical caregiving as men’s work in wartime.
Anne Digby
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205135
- eISBN:
- 9780191676512
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205135.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This is a major new study of the formative period in the development of modern general practice in the UK. Drawing upon an impressive range of hitherto unused archival material, the book analyses the ...
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This is a major new study of the formative period in the development of modern general practice in the UK. Drawing upon an impressive range of hitherto unused archival material, the book analyses the important changes and developments in primary health care in the century before the creation of the National Health Service in 1948.Less
This is a major new study of the formative period in the development of modern general practice in the UK. Drawing upon an impressive range of hitherto unused archival material, the book analyses the important changes and developments in primary health care in the century before the creation of the National Health Service in 1948.
Heather Bell
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207498
- eISBN:
- 9780191677694
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207498.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Much recent work on the history of colonial medicine argues that medicine was the handmaiden of colonial power and of capitalism. Highlighting the tenuousness of colonial power, this book challenges ...
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Much recent work on the history of colonial medicine argues that medicine was the handmaiden of colonial power and of capitalism. Highlighting the tenuousness of colonial power, this book challenges this interpretation through careful investigation of the complicated relationship between medicine, politics, and capital in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. It includes chapters on midwifery training and female circumcision, on health and racial ideology, and on the quest to find the yellow fever virus in East Africa.Less
Much recent work on the history of colonial medicine argues that medicine was the handmaiden of colonial power and of capitalism. Highlighting the tenuousness of colonial power, this book challenges this interpretation through careful investigation of the complicated relationship between medicine, politics, and capital in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. It includes chapters on midwifery training and female circumcision, on health and racial ideology, and on the quest to find the yellow fever virus in East Africa.
Adrian Howkins
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190249144
- eISBN:
- 9780190249175
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190249144.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, World Modern History
This book examines the environmental history of the Antarctic Peninsula region from the early twentieth century to the present. As the most politically contested part of the Antarctic continent, the ...
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This book examines the environmental history of the Antarctic Peninsula region from the early twentieth century to the present. As the most politically contested part of the Antarctic continent, the Antarctic Peninsula region is a good location for considering the intersection of diplomatic history and environmental history. In making imperial claims to the “Falkland Islands Dependencies,” British officials argued that the production of useful scientific knowledge about the Antarctic environment helped to justify British ownership. In contrast, Argentines and Chileans made the case that the Antarctica Peninsula belonged to them as a result of geographical proximity, geological continuity, and a general sense of connection. Despite being caught up in the broader struggles between imperialism and nationalism of the mid-twentieth century, the Antarctic Peninsula region was never decolonized. Instead, under the terms of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, existing sovereignty claims and reservations of rights were “frozen” for the duration of the treaty, and the whole Antarctic continent came to be governed by a treaty system that drew much of its authority from the production of useful scientific knowledge. In making an argument for imperial continuity in the history of the Antarctic Peninsula region, an environmental history approach offers a new perspective on the history of Antarctica that suggests that the environment, science, and politics continue to be closely entwined. This in turn has important implications for thinking about connections between diplomatic history and environmental history in different parts of the world and in addressing pressing global challenges such as climate change.Less
This book examines the environmental history of the Antarctic Peninsula region from the early twentieth century to the present. As the most politically contested part of the Antarctic continent, the Antarctic Peninsula region is a good location for considering the intersection of diplomatic history and environmental history. In making imperial claims to the “Falkland Islands Dependencies,” British officials argued that the production of useful scientific knowledge about the Antarctic environment helped to justify British ownership. In contrast, Argentines and Chileans made the case that the Antarctica Peninsula belonged to them as a result of geographical proximity, geological continuity, and a general sense of connection. Despite being caught up in the broader struggles between imperialism and nationalism of the mid-twentieth century, the Antarctic Peninsula region was never decolonized. Instead, under the terms of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, existing sovereignty claims and reservations of rights were “frozen” for the duration of the treaty, and the whole Antarctic continent came to be governed by a treaty system that drew much of its authority from the production of useful scientific knowledge. In making an argument for imperial continuity in the history of the Antarctic Peninsula region, an environmental history approach offers a new perspective on the history of Antarctica that suggests that the environment, science, and politics continue to be closely entwined. This in turn has important implications for thinking about connections between diplomatic history and environmental history in different parts of the world and in addressing pressing global challenges such as climate change.
Irvine Loudon, John Horder, and Charles Webster (eds)
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206750
- eISBN:
- 9780191677304
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206750.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This book provides a history of general practice under the National Health Service, from 1948 to the present. Between them, the chapters cover all the main aspects of general practice, including ...
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This book provides a history of general practice under the National Health Service, from 1948 to the present. Between them, the chapters cover all the main aspects of general practice, including changing concepts of illness and clinical practices, politics and organization, medical education, public relations, and international comparisons. These chapters examine how the relative stagnation of the early years, when morale and funding were low, gave way to a renaissance in general practice in the 1960s which changed the service out of all recognition. This book shows how the oldest branch of medicine gradually rediscovered its role alongside the rapid advances of specialized medicine.Less
This book provides a history of general practice under the National Health Service, from 1948 to the present. Between them, the chapters cover all the main aspects of general practice, including changing concepts of illness and clinical practices, politics and organization, medical education, public relations, and international comparisons. These chapters examine how the relative stagnation of the early years, when morale and funding were low, gave way to a renaissance in general practice in the 1960s which changed the service out of all recognition. This book shows how the oldest branch of medicine gradually rediscovered its role alongside the rapid advances of specialized medicine.
Jane Buikstra and Charlotte Roberts (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780195389807
- eISBN:
- 9780190254308
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780195389807.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This book provides a global compendium on the history of paleopathology, an interdisciplinary scientific discipline that focuses on the study of ancient disease. Offering perspectives from regions ...
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This book provides a global compendium on the history of paleopathology, an interdisciplinary scientific discipline that focuses on the study of ancient disease. Offering perspectives from regions that have traditionally had long histories of paleopathology, such as the United States and parts of Europe, this volume also presents important work by an international roster of scholars who are writing their own regional and cultural histories in the field. The book identifies major thinkers and figures who have contributed to paleopathology, as well as significant organizations and courses that have sponsored scientific research and communication, most notably the Paleopathology Association. The volume concludes with an eye towards the future of the discipline, discussing methods and research at the leading edge of paleopathology, particularly those that employ the analysis of ancient DNA and isotopes.Less
This book provides a global compendium on the history of paleopathology, an interdisciplinary scientific discipline that focuses on the study of ancient disease. Offering perspectives from regions that have traditionally had long histories of paleopathology, such as the United States and parts of Europe, this volume also presents important work by an international roster of scholars who are writing their own regional and cultural histories in the field. The book identifies major thinkers and figures who have contributed to paleopathology, as well as significant organizations and courses that have sponsored scientific research and communication, most notably the Paleopathology Association. The volume concludes with an eye towards the future of the discipline, discussing methods and research at the leading edge of paleopathology, particularly those that employ the analysis of ancient DNA and isotopes.
Marjorie Senechal
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199732593
- eISBN:
- 9780190254353
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199732593.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Dorothy Wrinch, a complicated and ultimately tragic figure, is remembered today for her much publicized feud with Linus Pauling over the shape of proteins, known as “the cyclol controversy.” Pauling ...
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Dorothy Wrinch, a complicated and ultimately tragic figure, is remembered today for her much publicized feud with Linus Pauling over the shape of proteins, known as “the cyclol controversy.” Pauling emerged victorious and is now seen as one of the twentieth century's greatest scientists. History has proven less kind to Wrinch. Although some of Wrinch's theories did not pass the test of time, her contributions to the fields of Darwinism, probability and statistics, quantum mechanics, x-ray diffraction, and computer science were anything but inconsequential. Wrinch's story is also the story of the science of crystals and the ever-changing notion of symmetry fundamental to that science. Drawing on a personal relationship with Wrinch as well as the papers archived at Smith College and elsewhere, this book explores the life of this brilliant and controversial figure. This biography provides a biographical narration, a detailed account of the cyclol controversy, and a personal memoir of the author's relationship with Wrinch. The book presents a sympathetic portrait of the life and science of a luminous but tragically flawed character.Less
Dorothy Wrinch, a complicated and ultimately tragic figure, is remembered today for her much publicized feud with Linus Pauling over the shape of proteins, known as “the cyclol controversy.” Pauling emerged victorious and is now seen as one of the twentieth century's greatest scientists. History has proven less kind to Wrinch. Although some of Wrinch's theories did not pass the test of time, her contributions to the fields of Darwinism, probability and statistics, quantum mechanics, x-ray diffraction, and computer science were anything but inconsequential. Wrinch's story is also the story of the science of crystals and the ever-changing notion of symmetry fundamental to that science. Drawing on a personal relationship with Wrinch as well as the papers archived at Smith College and elsewhere, this book explores the life of this brilliant and controversial figure. This biography provides a biographical narration, a detailed account of the cyclol controversy, and a personal memoir of the author's relationship with Wrinch. The book presents a sympathetic portrait of the life and science of a luminous but tragically flawed character.
Dhruv Raina
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198068808
- eISBN:
- 9780199080113
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198068808.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
The last three decades of the twentieth century witnessed a critical turn towards the theory of history and an examination of the representation and historiography of the Orient. This volume situates ...
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The last three decades of the twentieth century witnessed a critical turn towards the theory of history and an examination of the representation and historiography of the Orient. This volume situates the historiography of science in India within a social theory of science. It deals with paradigm shift within science studies, the move away from a West-centric theory of science, and future trends and possibilities. The book takes up several strands from the corpus of writing over the past 150 years and places them within the context of their times. It analyses ideas about the interplay between centre and periphery, internal and external accounts of science, creative tension between scientism and romanticism, model of colonial science and its relationship with the emergence of national science, and the distortions of nationalist historiography. While the essays do not in any sense constitute a comprehensive study in the historiography of sciences of India, they address certain relevant issues related to science and modernity in India. This book also explores the work of chemist-historians Prafulla Chandra Ray and Marcelin Berthelot.Less
The last three decades of the twentieth century witnessed a critical turn towards the theory of history and an examination of the representation and historiography of the Orient. This volume situates the historiography of science in India within a social theory of science. It deals with paradigm shift within science studies, the move away from a West-centric theory of science, and future trends and possibilities. The book takes up several strands from the corpus of writing over the past 150 years and places them within the context of their times. It analyses ideas about the interplay between centre and periphery, internal and external accounts of science, creative tension between scientism and romanticism, model of colonial science and its relationship with the emergence of national science, and the distortions of nationalist historiography. While the essays do not in any sense constitute a comprehensive study in the historiography of sciences of India, they address certain relevant issues related to science and modernity in India. This book also explores the work of chemist-historians Prafulla Chandra Ray and Marcelin Berthelot.
Alan D. Roe
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- April 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190914554
- eISBN:
- 9780190914585
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190914554.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Into Russian Nature examines the history of the Russian national park movement. Russian biologists and geographers had been intrigued with the idea of establishing national parks before the Great ...
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Into Russian Nature examines the history of the Russian national park movement. Russian biologists and geographers had been intrigued with the idea of establishing national parks before the Great October Revolution but pushed the Soviet government successfully to establish nature reserves (zapovedniki) during the USSR’s first decades. However, as the state pushed scientists to make zapovedniki more “useful” during the 1930s, some of the system’s staunchest defenders started supporting tourism in them. In the decades after World War II, the USSR experienced a tourism boom and faced a chronic shortage of tourism facilities. Also during these years, Soviet scientists took active part in Western-dominated international environmental protection organizations, where they became more familiar with national parks. In turn, they enthusiastically promoted parks for the USSR as a means to reconcile environmental protection and economic development goals, bring international respect to Soviet nature protection efforts, and help instill a love for the country’s nature and a desire to protect it in Russian/Soviet citizens. By the late 1980s, their supporters pushed transformative, and in some cases quixotic, park proposals. At the same time, national park opponents presented them as an unaffordable luxury during a time of economic struggle, especially after the USSR’s collapse. Despite unprecedented collaboration with international organizations, Russian national parks received little governmental support as they became mired in land-use conflicts with local populations. While the history of Russia’s national parks illustrates a bold attempt at reform, the state’s failure’s to support them has left Russian park supporters deeply disillusioned.Less
Into Russian Nature examines the history of the Russian national park movement. Russian biologists and geographers had been intrigued with the idea of establishing national parks before the Great October Revolution but pushed the Soviet government successfully to establish nature reserves (zapovedniki) during the USSR’s first decades. However, as the state pushed scientists to make zapovedniki more “useful” during the 1930s, some of the system’s staunchest defenders started supporting tourism in them. In the decades after World War II, the USSR experienced a tourism boom and faced a chronic shortage of tourism facilities. Also during these years, Soviet scientists took active part in Western-dominated international environmental protection organizations, where they became more familiar with national parks. In turn, they enthusiastically promoted parks for the USSR as a means to reconcile environmental protection and economic development goals, bring international respect to Soviet nature protection efforts, and help instill a love for the country’s nature and a desire to protect it in Russian/Soviet citizens. By the late 1980s, their supporters pushed transformative, and in some cases quixotic, park proposals. At the same time, national park opponents presented them as an unaffordable luxury during a time of economic struggle, especially after the USSR’s collapse. Despite unprecedented collaboration with international organizations, Russian national parks received little governmental support as they became mired in land-use conflicts with local populations. While the history of Russia’s national parks illustrates a bold attempt at reform, the state’s failure’s to support them has left Russian park supporters deeply disillusioned.