Marketplace of the Marvelous: The Strange Origins of Modern Medicine
Conventional medical treatment in nineteenth-century America was a high-risk, low-reward venture—a dangerous and not very effective path to recovery. Dubbed “heroic therapy,” the usual remedy for most ailments involved some scary combination of bloodletting, blistering, and purging (with liberal administration of laxatives and emetics). The side effects of this therapy, along with dismal results, opened the door for a variety of alternative healing methods. Historian Janik chronicles the rise and fall and renewed popularity of alternative medicine. Alternative healers tended to reach out to women (recognizing their role as caregivers in the family) and tapped into the prevailing mind-set of Americans, who  thought of themselves as self-reliant. Some of these remedies have persisted and prospered: manual manipulation and adjustments (by chiropractors and osteopaths), hypnosis, and the use of botanic medicines. Others have had less success and staying power: phrenology (reading the topography of the skull), magnetic healing, and hydropathy (treatment with cold water). Oscillating between arousing feelings  of hope and doubt, alternative medicine in America endures. --Tony Miksanek