The practice of warfare has consistently demanded the skills, resources and labour of healers. This course aims to explore some of the key aspects of the relationship between medicine and warfare in Europe and North America since 1500. Particular attention is paid to the role of medicine in the rise of modern forms of warfare, especially the contribution that medicine played in both disciplining bodies and maintaining the morale of armed forces personnel. The course’s key themes situate military-medical developments within historical debates about the processes of modernization, state formation, and the global pre-eminence of European empires to 1945. The course also explores the connections between war and medical innovation, as well as between warfare and welfare, in the early modern and modern eras. As we go about addressing these and other questions, students will work through a series of assignments designed not only to help them master the course material, but to develop and enhance their academic and lifetime skills of writing, research, analysis, and discussion. Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hoursPrerequisite(s): 3 credit units HIST at
The practice of warfare has consistently demanded the skills, resources and labour of healers. This course aims to explore some of the key aspects of the relationship between medicine and warfare in Europe and North America since 1500. Particular attention is paid to the role of medicine in the rise of modern forms of warfare, especially the contribution that medicine played in both disciplining bodies and maintaining the morale of armed forces personnel. The course’s key themes situate military-medical developments within historical debates about the processes of modernization, state formation, and the global pre-eminence of European empires to 1945. The course also explores the connections between war and medical innovation, as well as between warfare and welfare, in the early modern and modern eras. As we go about addressing these and other questions, students will work through a series of assignments designed not only to help them master the course material, but to develop and enhance their academic and lifetime skills of writing, research, analysis, and discussion. Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hoursPrerequisite(s): 3 credit units HIST at
