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Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences Advance Access published online on April 10, 2008
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, doi:10.1093/jhmas/jrn021
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Explaining Everything? The Power and Perils of Reading Rosenberg

Naomi Rogers*

Correspondence: * Section of the History of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, 333 Cedar St., New Haven, Connecticut 06510. E-mail: Naomi.rogers{at}yale.edu


  Abstract

This article examines the writings and teachings of eminent American medical historian Charles E. Rosenberg from the perspective of one of his former graduate students. It examines the appeal of the integrative quality of Rosenberg's historical approach; his attention to imperfect and inconsistent ideology; his use of graphic examples to shock and engage; his preference for continuity over change; his rejection of nostalgia and romanticism; the influence of his teacher Erwin Ackerknecht; and Rosenberg's response to American health policy issues. The article also places Rosenberg within the history of the rise and fall of American social medicine and assesses the potential influence of his work for twenty-first-century American medical history and health policy.

Key Words: historiography • health policy • history of epidemics • history of alternative medicine • social history of medicine • Charles Rosenberg • Erwin Ackerknecht • Rosemary Stevens • social medicine • history of therapy • Philadelphia hospitals


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