Social History of Medicine: the Development and the Problematics

Abstract

The history of the medical profession has rich traditions ranging back to the ancient Greeks. There was a time, after all, when doctors learned their profession in libraries. Since the enlightenment era, however, it has been marked with a focus on the development of it as a science rather than studying it as a history. Work with historical primary and secondary sources only began in any serious way in the second half of the twentieth century. This article looks to trace the formation of social history in medicine and provide a brief overview of how this subject matter was defined, formulated and developed. The main episodes of development of the medical history are considered alongside the reasons for the confluence of specialized medico-historical studies and traditional historiography. Also discussed is the contribution of prominent researchers to the field of the social history of medicine. The author pays special attention to developments in the American case and the case of the United Kingdom, as these two countries were where the professionalization of the history of medicine first took place, a development seen to be at the heart of this question. Examples from both countries are provided to show how the role of medicine changed through various periods and how the process of the ‘medicalization of society’ evolved. This took on great importance when medics were able to conquer the great epidemics of Europe and present themselves as capable of establishing social norms. The author also gives attention to the problemitization of the social history of medicine, revealing a wide and rich body of scholarship on the question, at least within the English-speaking world. All of this gives much food for thought on how far their Russian counterparts must go to match this level and points the way to a host of new research avenues.