Popular Print and Popular Medicine Almanacs and Health Advice in Early America / Thomas A. Horrocks.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Horrocks, Thomas A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Astrology, American--History--19th century.

Astrology, American.

Astrology, American--History--18th century.

Medical literature--United States--History--19th century.

Medical literature.

Medical literature--United States--History--18th century.

Social medicine--United States--History--19th century.

Social medicine.

Social medicine--United States--History--18th century.

Medicine, Popular--History--19th century.

Medicine, Popular.

Medicine, Popular--History--18th century.

Almanacs, American--History--19th century.

Almanacs, American.

Almanacs, American--History--18th century.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (239 pages) : illustrations

Manufacture:

Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2012

Place of Publication:

Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, 2008.

Language Note:

English

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.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 187-211) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781613761113

1613761112

OCLC:

794702313