Witches, Midwives & Nurses : A History of Women Healers

Bibliography

Bibliography The Manufacture of Madness, by Thomas szasz, MD, Delta Books, 1971. szasz asserts that institutional psychiatry is the modern version of the witchhunts , with the patient in the role of the witch. We are indebted to him for first presenting witchcraft in the context of the struggle between professionals and lay healers. see especially the chapter on “The Witch as healer.” Satanism and Witchcraft, by Jules Michelet. The citadel Press, 1939. a mid-nineteenth century work by a famous French historian. a vivid book on the Middle ages, superstition and the church, with a discussion of “satan as physician.” The Malleus Maleficarum, by heinrich Kramer and James sprenger, translated by rev. Montague summers . The Pushkin Press, london, 1928. Difficult 105 [as appeared in the original 1973 printing.] 106 medieval writing, but by far the best source for the day-to-day operations of the witch-hunts, and for insights into the mentality of the witch-hunter. The History of Witchcraft and Demonology, by rev. Montague summers. University Books, new York, 1956. Written in the 1920s by a catholic priest and defender—really!—of the witch-hunts. attacks the witch as “heretic,” “anarchist,” and “bawd.” Witchcraft, by Pennethrone hughes. Penguin Books, 1952. a general introduction and survey. Women Healers in Medieval Life and Literature, by Muriel Joy hughes. Books for libraries Press, Freeport, new York, 1943. a conservatively written book, with good information on the state of academic medicine and on women lay doctors and midwives. Unfortunately, it dismisses the whole question of witchcraft. The Witch Cult in Western Europe, by Margaret alice Murray. Oxford University Press, 1921. Dr. Murray was the first person to present the anthropological view, now widely accepted, that witchcraft represented, in part, the survival among the people of a pre-christian religion. A Mirror of Witchcraft, by christina hole. catto and Windus, london, 1957. a source-book of extracts 107 from trial reports and other writings, mostly from English witch trials of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Formation of the American Medical Profession: The Role of Institutions, 1780-1860, by Joseph Kett. Yale University Press, 1968. conservative point of view, but full of scattered information on lay healers . he discusses the politically radical nature of the Popular health Movement in chapter Four. Medicine in America: Historical Essays, by richard h. shryock. Johns hopkins Press, 1966. a readable, wide-ranging and fairly liberal book. see especially the chapters on “Women in american Medicine” and “The Popular health Movement.” American Medicine and the Public Interest, by rosemary stevens. Yale University Press 1971. long and dry, but useful for the early chapters on the formation of the american medical profession and the role of the foundations. Medical Education in the US and Canada, by abraham Flexner, carnegie Foundation, 1910. (available from University Microfilms, ltd., ann arbor.) The famous “Flexner report” that changed the face of american medical education. some reasonable proposals , but amazing elitism, racism, and sexism. 108 The History of Nursing, by richard shryock. n.B. saunders, 1959. Better than most nursing histories —which are usually glorifications of nursing by nursing educators—but must worse than shryock’s medical histories. Lonely Crusader: The Life of Florence Nightingale, by cecil Woodham-smith. Mcgraw hill, 1951. a richly detailed biography which puts nursing in the context of the oppression of upper-class Victorian women. Glances and Glimpses, by harriet K. hunt. source Book Press, 1970. rambling autobiography of a feminist and “irregular” woman doctor of the midnineteenth century. it’s useful for its descriptions of the state of medical practice at the time. “The american Midwife controversy: a crisis of Professionalization ,” by Frances E. Kobrin. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, July-august 1966, p.350. restrained and scholarly account of the outlawing of american midwives. Very worthwhile reading. Notes Notes Notes The Feminist Press is an independent nonprofit literary publisher that promotes freedom of expression and social justice. We publish exciting writing by women and men who share an activist spirit and a belief in choice and equality. Founded in 1970, we began by rescuing “lost” works by writers such as Zora Neale Hurston and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and established our publishing program with books by American writers of diverse racial and class backgrounds. Since then we have also been bringing...