Health and Wellness in Colonial America

Health and Wellness in Colonial America
Author: Rebecca Tannenbaum Ph.D.
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release:
Genre:
ISBN:

This book provides a broad introduction to medical practices among Anglo-Americans, Native Americans, and African Americans during the colonial period, covering everything from dentistry to childcare practices to witchcraft. It is ideal for college or advanced high school courses in early American history, the history of medicine, or general social history. Health and Wellness in Colonial America covers all aspects of medicine from surgery to the role of religion in healing, giving readers a comprehensive overall picture of medical practices from 1600 to 1800--a topic that speaks volumes about the living conditions during that period. In this book, an introductory chapter describes the ways in which all three cultures in colonial America--European, African, and Native American--thought about medicine. The work covers academic and scientific medicine as well as folk practices, women's role in healing, and the traditions of Native Americans and African Americans. Because of its broad scope, the book will be highly useful to advanced high school students; undergraduate students in various areas of studies, such as early American history, women's history, and history of medicine; and general readers interested in the history of medicine.

Health and Wellness in Colonial America

Health and Wellness in Colonial America
Author: Rebecca Tannenbaum Ph.D.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2012-08-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 0313384916

This book provides a broad introduction to medical practices among Anglo-Americans, Native Americans, and African Americans during the colonial period, covering everything from dentistry to childcare practices to witchcraft. It is ideal for college or advanced high school courses in early American history, the history of medicine, or general social history. Health and Wellness in Colonial America covers all aspects of medicine from surgery to the role of religion in healing, giving readers a comprehensive overall picture of medical practices from 1600 to 1800—a topic that speaks volumes about the living conditions during that period. In this book, an introductory chapter describes the ways in which all three cultures in colonial America—European, African, and Native American—thought about medicine. The work covers academic and scientific medicine as well as folk practices, women's role in healing, and the traditions of Native Americans and African Americans. Because of its broad scope, the book will be highly useful to advanced high school students; undergraduate students in various areas of studies, such as early American history, women's history, and history of medicine; and general readers interested in the history of medicine.

Revolutionary Medicine

Revolutionary Medicine
Author: Jeanne E Abrams
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2013-09-13
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 081475936X

An engaging history of the role that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin played in the origins of public health in America. Before the advent of modern antibiotics, one’s life could be abruptly shattered by contagion and death, and debility from infectious diseases and epidemics was commonplace for early Americans, regardless of social status. Concerns over health affected the Founding Fathers and their families as it did slaves, merchants, immigrants, and everyone else in North America. As both victims of illness and national leaders, the Founders occupied a unique position regarding the development of public health in America. Historian Jeanne E. Abrams’s Revolutionary Medicine refocuses the study of the lives of George and Martha Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John and Abigail Adams, and James and Dolley Madison away from politics to the perspective of sickness, health, and medicine. For the Founders, republican ideals fostered a reciprocal connection between individual health and the “health” of the nation. Studying the encounters of these American Founders with illness and disease, as well as their viewpoints about good health, not only provides a richer and more nuanced insight into their lives, but also opens a window into the practice of medicine in the eighteenth century, which is at once intimate, personal, and first hand. Today’s American public health initiatives have their roots in the work of America’s Founders, for they recognized early on that government had compelling reasons to shoulder some new responsibilities with respect to ensuring the health and well-being of its citizenry—beginning the conversation about the country’s state of medicine and public healthcare that continues to be a work in progress.

Daily Life in the Colonial City

Daily Life in the Colonial City
Author: Keith T. Krawczynski
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2013-02-20
Genre: History
ISBN:

An exploration of day-to-day urban life in colonial America. The American city was an integral part of the colonial experience. Although the five largest cities in colonial America--Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Charles Town, and Newport--held less than ten percent of the American popularion on the eve of the American Revolution, they were particularly significant for a people who resided mostly in rural areas, and wilderness. These cities and other urban hubs contained and preserved the European traditions, habits, customs, and institutions from which their residents had emerged. They were also centers of commerce, transportation, and communication; held seats of colonial government; and were conduits for the transfer of Old World cultures. With a focus on the five largest cities but also including life in smaller urban centers, Krawczynski's nuanced treatment will fill a significant gap on the reference shelves and serve as an essential source for students of American history, sociology, and culture. In-depth, thematic chapters explore many aspects of urban life in colonial America, including working conditions for men, women, children, free blacks, and slaves as well as strikes and labor issues; the class hierarchy and its purpose in urban society; childbirth, courtship, family, and death; housing styles and urban diet; and the threat of disease and the growth of poverty.

The Future of Public Health

The Future of Public Health
Author: Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 1988-01-15
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309581907

"The Nation has lost sight of its public health goals and has allowed the system of public health to fall into 'disarray'," from The Future of Public Health. This startling book contains proposals for ensuring that public health service programs are efficient and effective enough to deal not only with the topics of today, but also with those of tomorrow. In addition, the authors make recommendations for core functions in public health assessment, policy development, and service assurances, and identify the level of government--federal, state, and local--at which these functions would best be handled.

Marvels of Medicine

Marvels of Medicine
Author: Yarí Pérez Marín
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2020-10-22
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1789622670

'Marvels of Medicine is one more valuable addition to the field and stands as an example of the intertextual delights available to us when we bring these skill sets to our reading of early medical writing. [...] The reader finds a rich blend of analysis of medical terminology and rhetorical strategies that opens up these medical works to a broader scholarship for consideration and shows how they added to the rise of a particular Latin-American consciousness and stand at an intersection of medicine and coloniality. [...] Marvels of Medicine offers a very interesting prism through which to engage with medical, social and literary thought in early modern scholarship and creates scope for similar intertextual analysis in this and later periods of medical writing.' - Fiona Clark, Bulletin of Spanish Studies

Honoring the Medicine

Honoring the Medicine
Author: Kenneth S. Cohen
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Total Pages: 459
Release: 2018-12-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1984800418

For thousands of years, Native medicine was the only medicine on the North American continent. It is America’s original holistic medicine, a powerful means of healing the body, balancing the emotions, and renewing the spirit. Medicine men and women prescribe prayers, dances, songs, herbal mixtures, counseling, and many other remedies that help not only the individual but the family and the community as well. The goal of healing is both wellness and wisdom. Written by a master of alternative healing practices, Honoring the Medicine gathers together an unparalleled abundance of information about every aspect of Native American medicine and a healing philosophy that connects each of us with the whole web of life—people, plants, animals, the earth. Inside you will discover • The power of the Four Winds—the psychological and spiritual qualities that contribute to harmony and health • Native American Values—including wisdom from the Wolf and the inportance of commitment and cooperation • The Vision Quest—searching for the Great Spirit’s guidance and life’s true purpose • Moontime rituals—traditional practices that may be observed by women during menstruation • Massage techniques, energy therapies, and the need for touch • The benefits of ancient purification ceremonies, such as the Sweat Lodge • Tips on finding and gathering healing plants—the wonders of herbs • The purpose of smudging, fasting, and chanting—and how science confirms their effectiveness Complete with true stories of miraculous healing, this unique book will benefit everyone who is committed to improving his or her quality of life. “If you have the courage to look within and without,” Kenneth Cohen tells us, “you may find that you also have an indigenous soul.”

Food in America [3 volumes]

Food in America [3 volumes]
Author: Andrew F. Smith
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 1085
Release: 2017-02-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN:

This three-volume work examines all facets of the modern U.S. food system, including the nation's most important food and agriculture laws, the political forces that shape modern food policy, and the food production trends that are directly impacting the lives of every American family. Americans are constantly besieged by conflicting messages about food, the environment, and health and nutrition. Are foods with genetically modified ingredients safe? Should we choose locally grown food? Is organic food better than conventional food? Are concentrated animal feed operations destroying the environment? Should food corporations target young children with their advertising and promotional campaigns? This comprehensive three-volume set addresses all of these questions and many more, probing the problems created by the industrial food system, examining conflicting opinions on these complex food controversies, and highlighting the importance of food in our lives and the decisions we make each time we eat. The coverage of each of the many controversial food issues in the set offers perspectives from different sides to encourage readers to examine various viewpoints and make up their own minds. The first volume, Food and the Environment, addresses timely issues such as climate change, food waste, pesticides, and sustainable foods. Volume two, entitled Food and Health and Nutrition, addresses subjects like antibiotics, food labeling, and the effects of salt and sugar on our health. The third volume, Food and the Economy, tackles topics such as food advertising and marketing, food corporations, genetically modified foods, globalization, and megagrocery chains. Each volume contains several dozen primary documents that include firsthand accounts written by promoters and advertisers, journalists, politicians and government officials, and supporters and critics of various views related to food and beverages, representing speeches, advertisements, articles, books, portions of major laws, and government documents, to name a few. These documents provide readers additional resources from which to form informed opinions on food issues.

Return of Compassion to Healthcare

Return of Compassion to Healthcare
Author: & Mary Tellis-Nayak, RN, MSN, MPh
Publisher: Page Publishing Inc
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2016-12-13
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1684098882

While advances in medical science and disease treatments are always welcome, real transformation of healthcare requires us to focus on whole persons, not just maladies. Our responsibilities to ill people, and frail elders, including those with dementia, are not merely obligations, but also response-abilities. Beyond relieving suffering and meeting their basic biological needs, we can nurture each individual as a whole person and promote his or her wellbeing. The benefits are tangible and mutual. Helping professionals are rewarded through the deep and meaningful connections they form with the remarkable people they serve. In Return of Compassion to Healthcare the Tellis-Nayaks offer blueprints for person-centered care that can guide leaders of healthcare, aging services, government and business in building enlightened clinical programs and assisted-living communities for medically ill and otherwise vulnerable people. As Vivian and Mary Tellis-Nayak so clearly show, solutions are available. Evidence-based treatments are valuable, however, the best care is also tender and loving. Ira Byock, MD is founder and chief medical officer for the Institute for Human Caring, Providence Health & Service. His books include Dying Well and The Best Care Possible.

Just Medicine

Just Medicine
Author: Dayna Bowen Matthew
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2016-10-25
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1479888567

Offers an innovative plan to eliminate inequalities in American health care and save the lives they endanger Over 84,000 black and brown lives are needlessly lost each year due to health disparities: the unfair, unjust, and avoidable differences between the quality and quantity of health care provided to Americans who are members of racial and ethnic minorities and care provided to whites. Health disparities have remained stubbornly entrenched in the American health care system—and in Just Medicine Dayna Bowen Matthew finds that they principally arise from unconscious racial and ethnic biases held by physicians, institutional providers, and their patients. Implicit bias is the single most important determinant of health and health care disparities. Because we have missed this fact, the money we spend on training providers to become culturally competent, expanding wellness education programs and community health centers, and even expanding access to health insurance will have only a modest effect on reducing health disparities. We will continue to utterly fail in the effort to eradicate health disparities unless we enact strong, evidence-based legal remedies that accurately address implicit and unintentional forms of discrimination, to replace the weak, tepid, and largely irrelevant legal remedies currently available. Our continued failure to fashion an effective response that purges the effects of implicit bias from American health care, Matthew argues, is unjust and morally untenable. In this book, she unites medical, neuroscience, psychology, and sociology research on implicit bias and health disparities with her own expertise in civil rights and constitutional law. In a time when the health of the entire nation is at risk, it is essential to confront the issues keeping the health care system from providing equal treatment to all.