| Examines the social history of health and medicine in the early modern British world, c. 1500 -1800. Focuses on the relationship between medicine and society to explore how social, cultural, intellectual, and political factors helped to shape experiences of health, illness, and healing in early modern Britain and its Empire. The perspectives of patients will be considered alongside those of practitioners in the investigation of topics such as: early modern notions of the body, health, and environment; the role of religion, medical knowledge, authority, and the marketplace; the nature of the patient-practitioner exchange; public health responses; military and imperial medicine; the rise and function of medical institutions; medical ethics and professionalization. Evaluates such topics in relation to both continuity and change over the course of three centuries. |
