{"product_id":"lotions-potions-pills-and-magic-9780814787175","title":"Lotions, Potions, Pills, and Magic","description":"\u003cp\u003eHealth in early America was generally good. The food was plentiful,  the air and water were clean, and people tended to enjoy strong  constitutions as a result of this environment. Practitioners of  traditional forms of health care enjoyed high social status, and the  cures they offered—from purging to mere palliatives—carried a powerful  authority. Consequently, most American doctors felt little need to keep  up with Europe’s medical advances relying heavily on their traditional  depletion methods. However, in the years following the American  Revolution as poverty increased and America’s water and air became more  polluted, people grew sicker. Traditional medicine became increasingly  ineffective. Instead, Americans sought out both older and newer forms of  alternative medicine and people who embraced these methods: midwives,  folk healers, Native American shamans, African obeahs and the new  botanical and water cure advocates.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this overview of health and healing in early  America, Elaine G. Breslaw describes the evolution of public health  crises and solutions. Breslaw examines “ethnic borrowings” (of both  disease and treatment) of early American medicine and the tension  between trained doctors and the lay public. While orthodox medicine  never fully lost its authority, \u003ci\u003eLotions, Potions, Pills, and Magic\u003c\/i\u003e  argues that their ascendance over other healers didn’t begin until the  early twentieth century, as germ theory finally migrated from Europe to  the United States and American medical education achieved professional  standing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elaine G. Breslaw","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48272928473339,"sku":"9780814787175","price":107.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0779\/3917\/9771\/files\/CoreSourceHub_49a58ad5-4383-44fe-99b5-d264bece59b3.jpg?v=1770994275","url":"https:\/\/indiepubs.com\/products\/lotions-potions-pills-and-magic-9780814787175","provider":"IndiePubs","version":"1.0","type":"link"}