From the Editor

Doctoring the Past

Byrne

Over the course of U.S. history, from colonial times to the present, few if any fields have experienced more revolutionary changes than have medicine and health care. The apothecary shop pictured on the cover of this issue bears scant resemblance to the pharmacy of today and gives little hint of the emergence of the pharmaceutical and health care industries of the twenty-first century. In its day, of course, it may well have been a state-of-the-art facility. Elements of continuity between past and present also exist—midwives continue to practice, for example, although in much reduced proportions compared to the colonial experience related in Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's A Midwife’s Tale—but the predominant story especially over the past century and a half has been one of change over time.

For teachers of U.S. history, the themes of medicine, health, and health care offer an opportunity to garner students’ attention by having their classes focus on some crucial if rarely covered topics. Looked at one way, a class might study an element in history that is analogous to present-day experience. As I write this editorial, a health crisis of significant magnitude is developing in the area of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and Alabama, a result of the effects of Hurricane Katrina. One of the lesson plans included in this issue of the OAH Magazine of History, though, reminds us that in 1793 the citizens of Philadelphia endured their own staggering health crisis when that city lay in the grips of a yellow fever epidemic. And another article notes that the cataclysm of the American Civil War forced the medical profession to confront problems caused by the diseases that spread through the massive armies marshaled by the North and the South.

Despite those analogues, students might also be intrigued to discover the role that cultural norms about race, class, and gender have played with regard to the practice of medicine and concepts about health care, ideas that can be fascinatingly different from our current assumptions. The topics of medicine in the slave quarters and of the gendered roles for doctors and nurses come to mind. Taking another tack, one might consider the extent to which socially-constructed ideals of body type, both female and male, have altered over time. There are numerous possibilities, the authors in this issue of the Magazine remind us, to engage students’ interest by exploring the myriad topics loosely joined under the rubric "history of medicine." As guest editors Kathleen W. Jones and Jonathon Erlen mention in their introduction, the field referred to as the history of medicine "is not just for doctors any more!" The subsequent material ably proves their contention.

This issue of the Magazine is the result of a collaboration between the Organization of American Historians and the American Association for the History of Medicine (AAHM), an association "devoted to the study of all aspects of the history of the health professions, disease, public health, and related subjects." On behalf of the OAH, I extend our thanks to AAHM for its cooperation and support in creating this issue of our publication. As is regularly the case, another organization—the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History—has also provided us with a document related to the main theme, in this case a medical-based account that allows students to study remedies employed in the 1790s to treat diseases seldom found in today’s society. Meantime, a new column uses the resources of the National Park Service to locate and describe two sites that have special significance for the theme of this issue. Readers might also notice, however, the absence of the next essay in the “America On the World Stage” series. That article will run in the November issue after a brief hiatus.

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In the past few years, and especially in recent months, it has been heartening to see a revival of interest in the topic of history education, and in particular in the concept of a historical profession that meaningfully unites teachers whose employment ranges from elementary school to university to public history institutions. The OAH Magazine of History began as an effort by a college- and university-based OAH to reach out to precollegiate history teachers. In fact, in its first four years of publication the Magazine masthead carried the assertion that it was “For Junior and Senior High School Teachers.” As the years have passed the Magazine has sought deliberately to broaden its audience, acknowledging the necessity for historians and history teachers at all levels and in many locations to recognize the common interests and ways of knowing that unite us, even as we leave room for diversity of opinions and interpretations on many issues. Teaching history in elementary school, middle school, high school, public school, private school, home school, community college, four-year college, university, or public history institution is not exactly the same; but there are significant commonalities, and in important ways all these levels and locations tie together. One central aim of the Magazine is to help foster that spirit of common enterprise.

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At the September 2005 issue goes to press, it is impossible to ignore the catastrophe that has befallen so many people in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The OAH joins other groups calling for a generous, understanding response to this national emergency. It is likely that numerous schools at all levels have either completely lost or seen severely damaged their collections of books and journals on U.S. history, as well as other disciplines. Perhaps one way in which OAH members can make a unique contribution will be to donate copies of books or runs of journals to schools in the affected areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, once more serious concerns are alleviated. For other ways to help, please visit <http://www.oah.org/katrina/>.

—Kevin Byrne