Pestilence, Insanity, and Trees

How Stephen Smith Changed New York
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-1-032-60394-0
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 338 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 675 g

Reihe: Routledge Studies in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine

This is the first full-length biography of New York surgeon and social activist Stephen Smith (1823–1922), who was appointed to fifty years of public service by three mayors, seven governors, and two U.S. presidents.

The book presents the complex life of Stephen Smith, a consistent figure in the history of public health, mental health, housing reform in New York, and even urban reforestation. Utilizing Smith’s writings, public records, and recently discovered personal correspondence, this research shows how Smith succeeded where others failed. It also acknowledges that Smith was unsuccessful in convincing his fellow professionals to fight for a cabinet level public health department or to resist the rise of custodial care for the mentally impaired. Given Smith’s many accomplishments, the book asks us to consider if what stopped him stops us, highlighting the relevance of Smith’s story to contemporary debates.

Pestilence, Insanity, and Trees is a readable and well-documented narrative and a resource for students and scholars, filling gaps in the history of American medicine, public health, mental health, and New York social reform.

Zielgruppe

Academic

Autoren/Hrsg.

Harris Jr., John M.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: Framing a Hazy Portrait  1. Classrooms and Cholera  2. Big City Careers  3. Archetypes  4. Sanitation Becomes Patriotic  5. Metropolitan Health  6. Part-Time Sanitarian  7. New Professions  8. Leading Public Health  9. Fighting Germs  10. Public Health Politics  11. Bringing Data to Insanity  12. Lunacy Commissioner  13. State Insanity Care  14. A Non-Retirement  15. The Progressive Era Begins  16. Turn of the Century Challenges  17. Unfinished Business  18. Fighting Eugenics while Being Nestor  19. Famous at Last  20. Leaving Messages

Über Autor(innen)

John M. Harris Jr. is an internal medicine physician, medical executive, medical educator, and medical biographer living in Tucson, Arizona. He is the author of Professionalizing Medicine: James Reeves and the Choices That Shaped American Health Care (2019).