Dr. Charles E. Rosenberg
Charles E. Rosenberg, Ph.D., will present the second Heberden Society Lecture of the 2008–2009 academic year on Monday, Feb. 2, at 5 p.m. in Uris Faculty Room (A-126) at 1300 York Ave. The title of the lecture will be "What Is Medicine? The History of Our Present Complaints." The lecture is open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
In the lecture, Dr. Rosenberg will explore themes from his 2007 publication "Our Present Complaint: American Medicine, Then and Now." The Johns Hopkins University Press Web site describes the book as follows: "Charles E. Rosenberg, one of the world's most influential historians of medicine, presents a fascinating analysis of the current tensions in American medicine. At a time when clinical care and biomedical research generate as much angst as they offer cures, this volume provides valuable insight into how the practice of medicine has evolved, where it is going, and how lessons from history can improve its prognosis."
Dr. Rosenberg, born in 1936 in New York City, received both his master's degree (1957) and Ph.D. (1961) from Columbia University. Currently, he is professor of the history of science and the Ernest E. Monrad Professor in the Social Sciences at Harvard University. Previously, he taught at the University of Pennsylvania from 1963 to 2001. He has written widely on the history of medicine and science and has received acclaim for his books "Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866" (Chicago, 1962, 1987); "The Trial of the Assassin Guiteau: Psychiatry and Law in the Guilded Age" (Chicago, 1968); "No Other Gods: On Science and American Social Thought" (Johns Hopkins, 1976, 1997); "The Care of Strangers: The Rise of America's Hospital System" (Basic Books, 1987); and "Explaining Epidemics" (Cambridge, 1992). He is currently working on a history of conceptions of disease during the past two centuries and a volume on contemporary health policy issues in historical perspective.
The Heberden Society, which will sponsor Professor Rosenberg's lecture, was established here at the Medical Center in 1975 as a means for promoting interest in the history of medicine. The society sponsors three lectures during each academic year.