In this Book
- Popular Print and Popular Medicine: Almanacs and Health Advice in Early America
- Book
- 2008
- Published by: University of Massachusetts Press
summary
In this innovative study of the relationship between popular print and popular attitudes toward the body, health, and disease in antebellum America, Thomas A. Horrocks focuses our attention on a publication long neglected by scholars—the almanac. Approaching his subject as both a historian of the book and a historian of medicine, Horrocks contends that the almanac, the most popular secular publication in America from the late eighteenth century to the first quarter of the nineteenth, both shaped and was shaped by early Americans' beliefs and practices pertaining to health and medicine. Analyzing the astrological, therapeutic, and regimen advice offered in American almanacs over two centuries, and comparing it with similar advice offered in other genres of popular print of the period, Horrocks effectively demonstrates that the almanac was a leading source of health information in America prior to the Civil War. He contends that the almanac was an integral component of a complicated, fragmented, semi-vernacular health literature of the period, and that the genre played a leading role in disseminating astrological health advice as well as shaping contemporary and future perceptions of astrology. In terms of therapeutic and regimen advice, Horrocks asserts that the almanac performed a complementary role, confirming and reinforcing traditional beliefs and practices. By analyzing the almanac as a cultural artifact that represents a time, a place, and a certain set of assumptions and beliefs, he demonstrates that the genre can provide a lens through which scholars may examine early American attitudes and practices concerning their health in particular and American popular culture in general.
Table of Contents
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- Table of Contents
- p. vii
- Acknowledgments
- pp. xi-xii
- Chapter 1. Heavenly Guidance
- pp. 17-41
- Chapter 2. Advice for the Afflicted
- pp. 42-66
- Chapter 3. Prescribing Prevention
- pp. 67-89
- Chapter 4. Health Advice with an Agenda
- pp. 90-106
- Bibliography
- pp. 187-212
Additional Information
ISBN
9781613761113
Related ISBN(s)
9781558496569
MARC Record
OCLC
794702313
Pages
240
Launched on MUSE
2012-02-08
Language
English
Open Access
No