Document Type
Review
Publication Date
6-2005
Department 1
Civil War Institute
Department 2
History
Abstract
Doctoring the South does not go down easily, but a patient reader will benefit immeasurably from this brilliantly conceived and thoroughly researched book. Stephen Stowe has penetrated the scientific and cultural world of southern physicians during the mid-nineteenth century, showing how white doctors made meaning of their lives as they struggled to gain mastery of the sickly bodies of others. The confrontation between patient and physician, between sickness and health, reveals what Stowe calls the country orthodoxy style of southern practitioners. Country orthodoxy inextricably tied a doctor’s understanding of what it meant to be a professional to his local community. It was within a specific locale that the day-to-day reality of practicing medicine gave shape and meaning to the art of healing. [excerpt]
Copyright Note
This is the publisher's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
Recommended Citation
Carmichael, Peter S. "Is There a Southern Doctor in the House?" Reviews in American History 33.2 (June 2005) 197-202.
Required Publisher's Statement
Original version is available from the publisher through Project MUSE at: http://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/reviews_in_american_history/
Included in
Cultural History Commons, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons, United States History Commons