Rethinking Folk Culture in Twentieth-Century Britain

Social hygiene in twentieth-century Britain

example. Moreover, the astringent empiricism of the Parisian clinical school and the "analytic" approach of Pinel could also, with some plausibility, be advanced as contenders for the title of "medicine of the Revolution". What gives Braunstein's claim greater weight is the recognition of the essentially polemical nature of Brousssais' system, which developed out of a series ofencounters with o...

Health and society in twentieth-century Britain

Well-chosen illustrations and excerpts from sources including Richard Lower, Thomas Willis, John Mayow, Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Johannes Bernoulli, Hermann Boerhaave and Albrecht von Haller, aptly evidence the immediate impact of Stensen's theory and the variety of misinterpretations which beset it over the ensuing years. Kardel does not consider the possibility that Stensen may have contribu...

Twentieth-century Perspectives on Culture

‘A Wicked Operation’? Tonsillectomy in Twentieth-Century Britain

Histories of twentieth-century surgery have focused on surgical 'firsts' - dramatic tales of revolutionary procedures. The history of tonsillectomy is less glamorous, but more widespread, representing the experience and understanding of medicine for hundreds of children, parents and surgeons daily. At the start of the twentieth century, tonsillectomy was routine - performed on at least 80 000 s...

Vitality and Modernity: Defining the “Folk” in Early Twentieth Century China

As usual, the 2005 Chinese Rooster New Year celebrations in Beijing highlighted the annual Earth Temple Fair (Ditan Miaohui) as an indispensable attraction. In recent years, this entertaining space featuring red lanterns, lion dances, and revived folk performances has been widely and officially advocated as an occasion and place to appreciate “national culture (minzu wenhua)” and to experience ...