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culture of professionalism and the culture of democracy thus shaped 19th-century medicine in
America, which throughout the Western world was a time of progressivity in medical science. The same democratic rationality that had provoked skepticism about medical authority became logically allied with advances in science, which in turn undermined appeals to common sense by establishing methodologies of expertise.
157:, for instance, provided detailed instructions on delivering babies; performing vaccinations, abortions, and minor surgeries; and recognizing and treating the symptoms of disease. Because male physicians almost unanimously opposed admitting women into the profession, during the 1830s women involved with healing were more likely to find allies among alternative medical practitioners such as
40:'s anti-elitist views, the movement succeeded in ending almost all government regulation of health care. During the first two decades of the 19th century, states had regularly enacted licensing legislation; by 1845, only three states still licensed medical doctors. Among the leading figures within the movement were
71:, but rather the control of knowledge by an elite who sought to mystify it. One Thomsonian writer asserted, "There can be no good reason for keeping us ignorant of the medicines we are compelled to swallow." In the Thomsonian view knowledge, which in a democracy ought to be available to all, was an element in
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in the care chosen by the upper and middle classes. The decline of women as medical practitioners parallels their withdrawal from other occupations, such as shopkeeping, in which women had freely engaged during the colonial period. But as the population dispersed, particularly in the South and West,
124:'Common Sense,' I am aware, is quoted at a discount; especially by the medical profession, which proverbially ignores everything that has not the mixed odor of incomprehensibility and antiquity. Medical works are generally a heterogeneous compound of vague ideas and jaw-breaking words, in which the
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The egalitarian impulse encouraged ordinary people to acquire knowledge, but this informed awareness of what it took to obtain a high level of expertise eventually led to a proliferation of medical schools and licensing ā that is, to a greater emphasis on credentials. A "dialectic" between the
148:, most medical care had been administered at home by a woman, and the lay practice of medicine was dominated by women. By the Jacksonian era, a male-driven culture of self-proclaimed expertise ā licensing was still not the norm ā had displaced even
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Gunn emphasized an active relationship between physician and patient in the form of dialogue, directed toward understanding sickness in the context of the individual's psychology and everyday habits. Although Gunn was a proponent of
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is fought by the 'equalization of useful intelligence' among
American citizens ā¦ . Health becomes crucial in these Jacksonian equations because, without health, intelligence, the building block of
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and believed that ordinary people could understand practical medicine, his thinking was hierarchical in affirming the authority of professional doctors.
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was thus a driving force in the
Popular Health Movement, as articulated for instance throughout the writings of John C. Gunn:
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a lack of access to physicians contributed to women once again playing a major role in providing health care. Gunn's work
90:
339:
Medical Common Sense; Applied to the Causes, Prevention, and Cure of
Chronic Diseases and Unhappiness in Marriage
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advanced the efforts of women to obtain formal medical training, and in 1848, the New
England Medical College in
421:
233:
Barbara Cable
Nienstedt, "The Federal Approach to Alternative Medicine: Quackbusting, or Complementing," in
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Healing the
Republic: The Language of Health and the Culture of Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century America
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36:, and encouraged ordinary people to understand the pragmatics of health care. Arising in the spirit of
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67:," viewed therapeutics within the framework of political ideology. Thompson did not reject science
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The
Popular Health Movement coincides with a resurgence of women as health practitioners. In
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93:, becomes impaired and feeble. Citizens must be healthy in order to be politically free.
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176:) became the first medical school in the world that was exclusively for women.
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Although there were social barriers to professional education for women, the
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political equality becomes synonymous with 'equality in knowledge,' and
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341:(New York, 1868, rev. ed.), p. iii, full text available
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toward claims of medical expertise that were based on
253:, p. 58; Nienstedt, "The Federal Approach," p. 27.
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393:The Social Transformation of American Medicine
377:The Social Transformation of American Medicine
355:The Social Transformation of American Medicine
294:The Social Transformation of American Medicine
281:The Social Transformation of American Medicine
264:The Social Transformation of American Medicine
251:The Social Transformation of American Medicine
224:(Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 35ā37.
218:The Social Transformation of American Medicine
220:(Basic Books, 1982), p. 56; Joan Burbick,
106:, who was among those arrested under the
412:History of medicine in the United States
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174:Boston University School of Medicine
20:of the 1830sā1850s was an aspect of
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22:Jacksonian-era politics and society
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131:are largely employed to treat of
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28:. The movement promoted a
237:(Springer, 1998), p. 27
166:women's rights movement
18:Popular Health Movement
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235:Alternative Therapies
195:Clean living movement
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112:contraceptive devices
91:republican government
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422:Jacksonian democracy
323:Healing the Republic
310:Healing the Republic
117:Medical Common Sense
79:Egalitarian politics
59:, characterized by
57:Thomsonian medicine
30:rational skepticism
335:Edward Bliss Foote
104:Edward Bliss Foote
34:personal authority
155:Domestic Medicine
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417:Health movements
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42:Samuel Thomson
38:Andrew Jackson
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26:United States
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180:Consequences
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100:common sense
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406:Categories
214:Paul Starr
201:References
135:subjects.
61:Paul Starr
52:Principles
321:Burbick,
308:Burbick,
270:and 55ff.
266:, pp. 47
150:midwifery
129:languages
379:, p. 50.
312:, p. 37.
283:, p. 53.
189:See also
391:Starr,
375:Starr,
353:Starr,
343:online.
292:Starr,
279:Starr,
262:Starr,
249:Starr,
239:online.
87:tyranny
24:in the
268:online
170:Boston
133:living
69:per se
172:(now
127:dead
44:and
16:The
408::
384:^
337:,
301:^
216:,
161:.
75:.
48:.
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