Health spectacle in American popular literature, 1790-1870

This project takes up health spectacle, which I identify as a prevailing concept for late eighteenth and nineteenth century American health history, first beginning in the 1790s and concluding in the 1860s and 70s. Through a study of popular literature of the period and other circulating medical thought in journals and newspapers, I investigate how instances of health spectacle shaped the development of professionalized health and medicine. Ultimately, I argue that reading for health spectacle in popular literature reveals a prevailing tension between medical expertise and medical democratization of knowledge in the United States.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Stewart, Victoria Lane

Contributors dc:contributor

• Murison, Justine S
• Littlefield, Melissa M
• Hilger, Stephanie M
• Jones, Jamie L

• eighteenth century American literature
• nineteenth century American literature
• health history
• popular American literature
• Charles Brockden Brown
• George Lippard
• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Silas Weir Mitchell

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Victoria Stewart

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132564

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/132564