Popular Print and Popular Medicine
Almanacs and Health Advice in Early America
University of Massachusetts Press
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.
Given the wide readership of almanacs in early America and their importance to the business of printing and publishing, the neglect of scholarship on almanacs verges on the scandalous. . . . Horrocks's intense focus, his broad range of primary sources, his grasp of the positions of other scholars, his crisp argumentation, and his clear, accessible prose combine to make this a valuable study.'—E. Jennifer Monaghan, author of Learning to Read and Write in Colonial America
'In this well-written little book, Horrocks provides insight to the influence popular health writing - in particular, the almanac - had on the publishing industry in the first part of the nineteenth-century . . . Modern modalities have reestablished, in a different form, home health care, and the epilogue provides an excellent overview of this. . . . The writing is clear, and the illustrations well display the subjects and details provided by these popular publications.'—Choice
'A deeply scholarly scrutiny of the connections between almanacs and popular culture, and a welcome supplement to college library and early American history shelves.'—The Midwest Book Review
'This new study by Horrocks is a welcome addition to the field. . . . The clarity of the prose is admirable. . . . Most illuminating throughout the study is Horrock's exploration of the complex relationship between the almanac and other popular printed sources for health and medical information. . . . Popular Print and Popular Medicine is compact, useful and endlessly suggestive. Part of the acclaimed University of Massachusetts series, Studies in Print Culture and the History of the Book, it is a major contribution to our knowledge and should go a long way towards stimulating other almanac studies. . . . Thomas Horrocks has given us an indispensable book, like the almanac itself.'—Society for the History of Authorship, Reading & Publishing
'Murray deserves praise for his success as a narrator who seems to simply tap into the historical record and subsequently search out insight form reputable scholars. For an introduction and overview of the subfield of religious liberty in America, this work provides sufficient depth and for those interested, stimulates questions for further research.'—Southern Methodist University
Thomas A. Horrocks is associate librarian for collections at Houghton Library, Harvard University.
