18th century regimen literature
19th century secular publications
A01=Thomas A. Horrocks
almanac readership and beliefs
almanacs and cultural attitudes
almanacs and social beliefs
almanacs as health guides
almanacs as medical authorities
American cultural history and medicine
American health and astrology
American health history 18th century
American medical culture 18th-19th century
American print culture and
antebellum medical practices
antebellum society health practices
astrological health predictions
astrological influences on wellness
astrology and health advice
astrology and regimen literature
astrology in popular medicine
Author_Thomas A. Horrocks
Category=NHTB
Category=VFD
cultural history of medicine
dissemination of health information
early American health guidance
early American lifestyle and health
early American medicine
early American wellness practices
eq_bestseller
eq_health-lifestyle
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
health and disease beliefs
health communication through print
health dissemination through print
historical health advice
historical medical advice
history of American popular print
history of American reading habits
history of preventive medicine
influence of almanacs on public health
popular almanacs in antebellum America
popular literature and medical knowledge
popular medical knowledge
popular print culture in America
pre-Civil War health information
pre-modern American medical culture
public health in antebellum America
public perception of health
regimen and diet in history
secular publications and medicine
semi-vernacular medical literature
therapeutic practices in early America
Product details
- ISBN 9781558496576
- Weight: 358g
- Dimensions: 147 x 220mm
- Publication Date: 16 Jul 2008
- Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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In this innovative study of the relationship between popular print and popular attitudes toward the body, health, and disease in antebellum America, Thomas A. Horrocks focuses our attention on a publication long neglected by scholars - the almanac. Approaching his subject as both a historian of the book and a historian of medicine, Horrocks contends that the almanac, the most popular secular publication in America from the late eighteenth century to the first quarter of the nineteenth, both shaped and was shaped by early Americans' beliefs and practices pertaining to health and medicine.Analyzing the astrological, therapeutic, and regimen advice offered in American almanacs over two centuries, and comparing it with similar advice offered in other genres of popular print of the period, Horrocks effectively demonstrates that the almanac was a leading source of health information in America prior to the Civil War. He contends that the almanac was an integral component of a complicated, fragmented, semi-vernacular health literature of the period, and that the genre played a leading role in disseminating astrological health advice as well as shaping contemporary and future perceptions of astrology.In terms of therapeutic and regimen advice, Horrocks asserts that the almanac performed a complementary role, confirming and reinforcing traditional beliefs and practices. By analyzing the almanac as a cultural artifact that represents a time, a place, and a certain set of assumptions and beliefs, he demonstrates that the genre can provide a lens through which scholars may examine early American attitudes and practices concerning their health in particular and American popular culture in general.
THOMAS A. HORROCKS is associate librarian for collections at Houghton Library, Harvard University.
