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Focus on Scholarship
Previously, the history professor’s A Doctor of Their Own: The History of Adolescent Medicine (Harvard University Press, 1998) was hailed as “an excellent model of how professional specialty history ought to be written.” It was winner of the American Medical Writers Association’s 2000 Will Solimene Award of Excellence in Medical Communication. Now broadening the scope of her investigation, Prescott has collaborated on Children and Youth in Sickness and in Health: A Historical Handbook and Guide, being published by Greenwood Press in Westport. “I see this book as another step in furthering my interest in the history of child and adolescent health, which really began with my doctoral thesis at Cornell working under the guidance of my adviser, Joan Jacobs Brumberg, a highly respected scholar in the fields of women studies and the history of medicine,” said Prescott. Having joined CCSU in 1992, Prescott, who earned her master’s and Ph.D. at Cornell, has herself emerged as a leader in those fields. She has been a visiting scholar at Radcliffe College and most recently at Colgate University where she taught courses on women’s history and on the history of medicine. Prescott and her collaborators—Dr. Janet Golden, associate professor of history at Rutgers, and Dr. Richard A. Meckel, associate professor of American civilization and history at Brown University—present ways that professionals and the state have addressed child health problems from the colonial period through the 20th Century. One focus of the book is how children and youth have reacted to being ill and how these experiences shaped the development of health care and the emergence of pediatric medicine. By examining the child’s perspective of illness, the authors contribute to an understanding of illness as part of the developmental process of growing up. Two Themes and Six Essays Six original essays, covering three centuries of American history, examine child health and welfare. An introduction by the co-authors suggests how the commentaries can serve to launch research projects. Meckel deals with morbidity and mortality trends; Golden with health care and health care providers; Elizabeth Toon, visiting assistant professor of science and technology studies at Cornell, with teaching children health; Kathleen Jones, associate professor of history at Virginia Technological University, with sound minds and healthy bodies; and Kriste Lindenmeyer, associate professor of history at University of Maryland Baltimore County, with child health and the state. Prescott’s essay, “Stories of Child Health and Illness,” looks at stories of child health and disease—many drawn from such recognizable classics as Little Women, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, The Velveteen Rabbit—Prescott also studies film, advertising, and other media of popular culture to reconstruct the social milieu in which parents and children shared the experience of sickness. She concludes that historically in America, “most children were cared for by female relatives and friends within the home. Even after the rise of modern medical institutions in the 20th Century, care-taking of sick children remained the responsibility and duty of mothers and other female family members.” Further, Prescott looked at the spiritual and moral aspects of childhood illness, about which she said, “In early America, narratives of children’s experiences with disease and death were closely linked with notions of Christian piety and virtue.” She concluded from the stories: “In an era before modern medical technologies, the possibility of one’s own death or that of a close relative was ever-present. Colonial Americans, therefore, believed that children should be presented with this reality and its theological implications” as soon as they reached the age of reason. Prescott includes, as do all of the essayists in the second section of the book, primary source materials. She said, “Readers can evaluate for themselves firsthand the subjects/materials mentioned in the essays.” The authors hoped “to provide a foundation for those undertaking further research.” Prescott included several primary sources: children’s diaries/memoirs of illness and health treatment; photographs and testimonies of “poster children” for March of Dimes and the Jimmy Fund; and Web discussions by children and teenagers with chronic illnesses or disabilities. “Today the Internet allows teenagers in particular to turn to chat rooms—a contemporary take on the old bedtime story—to gain access to virtual support groups from those experiencing similar diseases or health issues.” A Guide for Future Research “What makes this book unique,” observed Prescott, “is that it is comprehensive and accessible. It’s written for a general audience. We were thinking our reference book would be suitable for advanced high school students and college and university undergraduates in a range of history courses. So many others—journalists, health care providers, policy makers, even first or second year medical students—can find it useful.” — Geri Radacsi |
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Lat Modified: Thursday May 29, 2008 |
Expanding her research on the history of adolescent medicine—a subject
she explored with distinction in her first book—Dr. Heather Munro
Prescott has co-authored a new book being acclaimed as “the first
comprehensive history of child health in the United States.”