Welcome to Monday Methods, our weekly feature where we discuss methodological and theoretical approaches to history in their various iterations. Today's topic is topical for these time: Medical History.
Medical history is – broadly speaking – the study of past medical and health practices and how socieites in the past have dealt with diseases and illnesses. Medical history often faces the challenge of both medical practices and their vocabulary changing drastically as well as our idea of disease and illness evolving together with social change in general.
So, what are your experiences in doing or studying medical history? What challenge have you faced and what are the current trends and interests in the field? What kind of questions do you have for our experts who are well-versed in the subject of medical history?
I'd love an overview on how childbirth was treated socially and medically over the decades/centuries.
Did pirates have doctors aboard their ships? If not, how would they treat wounds?
How were doctors trained over time?
Did leeching actually help?
How did the colonial empires of Europe (mainly Britain, France and Spain) view and practice medicine in their colonies versus in their homelands in the late 19th and early 20th Century?
Who are the current good authors? I enjoy Fitzharris, Roach, and Blum.