Doctoring the South - (Studies in Social Medicine) by Steven M Stowe (Paperback)

About the Book

Doctoring the South: Southern Physicians and Everyday Medicine in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

Book Synopsis

Offering a new perspective on medical progress in the nineteenth century, Steven M. Stowe provides an in-depth study of the midcentury culture of everyday medicine in the South. Reading deeply in the personal letters, daybooks, diaries, bedside notes, and published writings of doctors, Stowe illuminates an entire world of sickness and remedy, suffering and hope, and the deep ties between medicine and regional culture.

In a distinct American region where climate, race and slavery, and assumptions about "southernness" profoundly shaped illness and healing in the lives of ordinary people, Stowe argues that southern doctors inhabited a world of skills, medicines, and ideas about sickness that allowed them to play moral, as well as practical, roles in their communities. Looking closely at medical education, bedside encounters, and medicine's larger social aims, he describes a "country orthodoxy" of local, social medical practice that highly valued the "art" of medicine. While not modern in the sense of laboratory science a century later, this country orthodoxy was in its own way modern, Stowe argues, providing a style of caregiving deeply rooted in individual experience, moral values, and a consciousness of place and time.

Review Quotes

"A fascinating study -- thoroughly researched, well written, and showing a depth of thought and sensitivity. The book is a worthwhile read and will be of interest to a broad spectrum of the historical field, including medical and cultural historians, nineteenth-century historians, and the South generally." -- H-SHEAR

"A straight-forward, well documented story of the trials and tribulations of nineteenth century physicians and their patients. . . . A bonanza of information. . . . This fascinating, evocative, and thoughtful book is a significant addition to both Southern and medical history." -- Historian

"As a richly documented chronicle of medicine in the mid-nineteenth century, this book is successful and claims a high place in both social history and the history of medicine in America." -- Journal of Southern History

"Exceedingly well-researched and well-written. . . . It should become the prototype of a new genre, inspiring similar studies in other parts of America." -- South Carolina Historical Magazine

"Fills a particular niche for the student of both southern history and the history of medicine. . . . A fresh and creative view." -- Arkansas Historical Quarterly

"Takes an unconventional look at a conventional topic. . . . An important contribution to studies of southern community life as well as a deeply thoughtful examination of the praxis of regional medical science." -- Journal of Social History

"This book . . . is pathbreaking in many respects. . . . Stowe has written a superb book. Thoroughly researched and supported by an excellent bibliography and index, it offers a level of insight into mainstream practice that sets a much higher standard for future scholars." -- American Historical Review

"This is an excellent work that deserves to be on the shelves of academic libraries everywhere. . . . [Doctoring the South: Southern Physicians and Everyday Medicine in the Mid-Nineteenth Century] provides a glimpse of doctoring not available elsewhere." -- Doody's Review Service

"This prodigious research is augmented by a well-written narrative that takes readers to southern medical-school classrooms, to doctors' offices, and to the bedsides of the neighbors that they sought to mend and heal. . . . [This] masterful achievement should become a model for . . . medical history." -- Journal of Interdisciplinary History