Thesis ID: CBB001562006

Rules, Remedies, and Regimens: Almanacs and Popular Medicine in Early America (2003)

unapi

Horrocks, Thomas A. (Author)


University of Pennsylvania
Rosenberg, Charles E.


Publication Date: 2003
Edition Details: Advisor: Rosenberg, Charles E.
Physical Details: 297 pp.
Language: English

Health advice was a staple of pre-1860 American almanacs, yet historians have not investigated the role played by the genre in popular medicine. This study examines astrological, therapeutic, and regimen advice provided by almanacs and compares it with similar advice offered by other genres of popular print available to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Americans. I argue that almanacs were an integral component of a complicated, fragmented, semi-vernacular health literature. Almanacs played a leading role in disseminating astrological health advice as well as shaping contemporary and future perceptions of the practice. In terms of therapeutic and regimen advice, almanacs played complementary roles, confirming and reinforcing traditional beliefs and practices. This study is comprised of five chapters. The introduction provides a broader context for the chapters that follow by reviewing the development of the almanac and of various genres of popular health literature. Chapters 1, 2, and 3 examine the three main forms of health advice found in early American almanacs. Chapter 4 examines health advice found in specialty almanacs that emerged in the early decades of the nineteenth century. The final chapter presents a brief summation of preceding chapters and an overview of my conclusions.

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Description Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 64 (2004): 3813. UMI order no. 3109184.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001562006/

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Authors & Contributors
Iorio, Elena
Munno, Cristina
Horrocks, Thomas A.
Wersan, Kate
Loconsole, Matteo
Rachel E. Walker
Concepts
Popular culture
Almanacs
Medicine
Science and society
Astrology
Public health
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
20th century
17th century
21st century
20th century, early
Places
United States
Italy
Great Britain
England
Ireland
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