History of Medicine: Health, Medicine and Disease in the Eighteenth Century

Br J 18th Cent Stud. 2011 Dec 1;34(4):503-515. doi: 10.1111/j.1754-0208.2011.00448.x.

Abstract

This article surveys anglophone scholarship in the history of medicine over the past decade or so. It selectively identifies and critically evaluates key themes and trends in the field. It discusses the emergence of the discipline from a period of directional crisis to more recent emphasis on a pluralistic and 'bigger-picture' agenda, on comparative, cross-disciplinary and multicultural approaches, and on the reorientation and (putative) broadening out of medical history towards wider public engagement and closer interface with medical humanities.

Keywords: bodies; cultural; diseases; emotions; healers; institutions; interdisciplinary; medical humanities; practitioners; sickness; social history of medicine.