HIST H399K ST: Health in US History
This class examines the changing nature of ideas and practices surrounding health and medicine in the United States from the colonial period until the modern day. Major topics include: battles over medical expertise, perceptions of the body, definitions of health and illness, shifting patterns of treatment, racism and medical history, gender, battles over control of women's health, health and sexuality, food and medicine, and social responses to changing medical theories. Students will leave the course with an understanding that medicine, treatment, and ideas about health are not only scientifically created, but also impacted and influenced by social and historical forces.