Medical Caregiving and Identity in Pennsylvania's Anthracite Region, 1880-2000

While much has been written about immigrant traditions, music, food culture, folklore, and other aspects of ethnic identity, little attention has been given to the study of medical culture, until now. In Medical Caregiving and Identity in Pennsylvania's Anthracite Region, 1880–2000, Karol Weaver employs an impressive range of primary sources including folk songs, patent medicine advertisements, oral history interviews, ghost stories, and jokes to show how the men and women of the anthracite coal region crafted their gender and ethnic identities via the medical decisions they made. Weaver examines communities’ relationships with both biomedically trained physicians and informally trained medical caregivers, and how these relationships reflected a sense of “Americanness.” She uses interviews and oral histories to help tell the story of neighborhood healers, midwives, Pennsylvania German powwowers, medical self-help, and eventually the transition to modern day medicine. Collectively, the author is able to show how each of these methods of healing were not only shaped by their patrons and their backgrounds, but also how they helped to mold the identities of the new Americans who sought them out.

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"Finally, a scholar has tackled in rich detail the meeting of folk and modern medical beliefs and practices during international migration. Medical Caregiving and Identity in Pennsylvania's Anthracite Region is a valuable introduction to the powwowers, wise neighbors, midwives, regional hospitals, and mining company and immigrant doctors who offered mining communities a panoply of changing health care choices. This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in the social history of U.S. immigration." --Donna Gabaccia, University of Minnesota