Migraine: A History

A cultural, social, and medical history of migraine.

For centuries, people have talked of a powerful bodily disorder called migraine, which currently affects about a billion people around the world. Yet until now, the rich history of this condition has barely been told.

In Migraine, award-winning historian Katherine Foxhall reveals the ideas and methods that ordinary people and medical professionals have used to describe, explain, and treat migraine since the Middle Ages. Touching on classical theories of humoral disturbance and medieval bloodletting, Foxhall also describes early modern herbal remedies, the emergence of neurology, and evolving practices of therapeutic experimentation. Throughout the book, Foxhall persuasively argues that our current knowledge of migraine's neurobiology is founded on a centuries-long social, cultural, and medical history. This history, she demonstrates, continues to profoundly shape our knowledge of this complicated disease, our attitudes toward people who have migraine, and the sometimes drastic measures that we take to address pain.

Migraine is an intimate look at how cultural attitudes and therapeutic practices have changed radically in response to medical and pharmaceutical developments. Foxhall draws on a wealth of previously unexamined sources, including medieval manuscripts, early-modern recipe books, professional medical journals, hospital case notes, newspaper advertisements, private diaries, consultation letters, artworks, poetry, and YouTube videos. Deeply researched and beautifully written, this fascinating and accessible study of one of our most common, disabling--and yet often dismissed--disorders will appeal to physicians, historians, scholars in medical humanities, and people living with migraine alike.

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Migraine: A History

A cultural, social, and medical history of migraine.

For centuries, people have talked of a powerful bodily disorder called migraine, which currently affects about a billion people around the world. Yet until now, the rich history of this condition has barely been told.

In Migraine, award-winning historian Katherine Foxhall reveals the ideas and methods that ordinary people and medical professionals have used to describe, explain, and treat migraine since the Middle Ages. Touching on classical theories of humoral disturbance and medieval bloodletting, Foxhall also describes early modern herbal remedies, the emergence of neurology, and evolving practices of therapeutic experimentation. Throughout the book, Foxhall persuasively argues that our current knowledge of migraine's neurobiology is founded on a centuries-long social, cultural, and medical history. This history, she demonstrates, continues to profoundly shape our knowledge of this complicated disease, our attitudes toward people who have migraine, and the sometimes drastic measures that we take to address pain.

Migraine is an intimate look at how cultural attitudes and therapeutic practices have changed radically in response to medical and pharmaceutical developments. Foxhall draws on a wealth of previously unexamined sources, including medieval manuscripts, early-modern recipe books, professional medical journals, hospital case notes, newspaper advertisements, private diaries, consultation letters, artworks, poetry, and YouTube videos. Deeply researched and beautifully written, this fascinating and accessible study of one of our most common, disabling--and yet often dismissed--disorders will appeal to physicians, historians, scholars in medical humanities, and people living with migraine alike.

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Migraine: A History

Migraine: A History

by Katherine Foxhall
Migraine: A History

Migraine: A History

by Katherine Foxhall

Paperback

$42.00 
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Overview

A cultural, social, and medical history of migraine.

For centuries, people have talked of a powerful bodily disorder called migraine, which currently affects about a billion people around the world. Yet until now, the rich history of this condition has barely been told.

In Migraine, award-winning historian Katherine Foxhall reveals the ideas and methods that ordinary people and medical professionals have used to describe, explain, and treat migraine since the Middle Ages. Touching on classical theories of humoral disturbance and medieval bloodletting, Foxhall also describes early modern herbal remedies, the emergence of neurology, and evolving practices of therapeutic experimentation. Throughout the book, Foxhall persuasively argues that our current knowledge of migraine's neurobiology is founded on a centuries-long social, cultural, and medical history. This history, she demonstrates, continues to profoundly shape our knowledge of this complicated disease, our attitudes toward people who have migraine, and the sometimes drastic measures that we take to address pain.

Migraine is an intimate look at how cultural attitudes and therapeutic practices have changed radically in response to medical and pharmaceutical developments. Foxhall draws on a wealth of previously unexamined sources, including medieval manuscripts, early-modern recipe books, professional medical journals, hospital case notes, newspaper advertisements, private diaries, consultation letters, artworks, poetry, and YouTube videos. Deeply researched and beautifully written, this fascinating and accessible study of one of our most common, disabling--and yet often dismissed--disorders will appeal to physicians, historians, scholars in medical humanities, and people living with migraine alike.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781421429489
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date: 06/18/2019
Pages: 292
Sales rank: 1,097,451
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Social and medical historian Katherine Foxhall earned her PhD from the University of Warwick. She is the author of Health, Medicine, and the Sea: Australian Voyages c. 1815-1860.

Table of Contents

List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Note on Terminology and Names
Chapter 1. Introduction: Programmed In?
Chapter 2. The "Beating of Hammers": Classical and Medieval Approaches to Hemicrania
Chapter 3. "Take Housleeke, and Garden Wormes": Migraine Medicine in the Early Modern Household
Chapter 4. A "Deadly Tormenting Megrym": Expanding Markets and Changing Meanings
Chapter 5. "The Pain Was Very Much Relieved and She Slept": Gender and Patienthood in the Nineteenth Century
Chapter 6. "As Sharp as If Drawn with Compasses": Victorian Vision, Men of Science, and the Making of Modern Migraine
Chapter 7. "A Shower of Phosphenes": Twentieth-Century Stories and the Medical Uses of History
Chapter 8. "Happy Hunting Ground": Conceptual Fragmentation and Medication in the Twentieth Century
Chapter 9. "If I Could Harness Pain": The Migraine Art Competitions, 1980-1987
Chapter 10. Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Joanna Kempner

Foxhall has written the most comprehensive, well-researched, and in-depth history of migraine in existence. Drawing on completely original research, this book is a truly wonderful compendium of Western medicine's approach to and treatment of migraine over the centuries.

Joanna Bourke

Katherine Foxhall is one of the most illuminating young historians of science and medicine writing today. Her history of the migraine from the second century to the present is an enthralling story. It is a must-read for migraine sufferers as well as their physicians and friends. I couldn't put it down.

Daniel S. Goldberg

In this comprehensive account, Foxhall assesses over one thousand years of Western experience with migraine. Paying close attention to ways in which gender, class, and race in particular shape responses to migraine, the book amplifies the voices of people who for too long have been silenced and doubted.

Anne MacGregor

Despite being recognised since time immemorial, migraine continues to elude a 'cure.' In her eloquent book, Katherine Foxhall looks at migraine's past with the eyes of the present, providing a fascinating insight into how societal changes have affected the perception of this condition and the impact that has had on management. 

Matthew Smith

A fascinating and very well-written book. With verve and passion, Katherine Foxhall issues a call to arms that uses history to make its case.

From the Publisher

Foxhall has written the most comprehensive, well-researched, and in-depth history of migraine in existence. Drawing on completely original research, this book is a truly wonderful compendium of Western medicine's approach to and treatment of migraine over the centuries.
—Joanna Kempner, Rutgers University, author of Not Tonight: Migraine and the Politics of Gender and Health

A fascinating and very well-written book. With verve and passion, Katherine Foxhall issues a call to arms that uses history to make its case.
—Matthew Smith, University of Strathclyde, author of Another Person's Poison: A History of Food Allergy

Katherine Foxhall is one of the most illuminating young historians of science and medicine writing today. Her history of the migraine from the second century to the present is an enthralling story. It is a must-read for migraine sufferers as well as their physicians and friends. I couldn't put it down.
—Joanna Bourke, Birkbeck, University of London, author of The Story of Pain: From Prayers to Painkillers

In this comprehensive account, Foxhall assesses over one thousand years of Western experience with migraine. Paying close attention to ways in which gender, class, and race in particular shape responses to migraine, the book amplifies the voices of people who for too long have been silenced and doubted.
—Daniel S. Goldberg, University of Colorado, author of Public Health Ethics and the Social Determinants of Health

Despite being recognised since time immemorial, migraine continues to elude a 'cure.' In her eloquent book, Katherine Foxhall looks at migraine's past with the eyes of the present, providing a fascinating insight into how societal changes have affected the perception of this condition and the impact that has had on management. 
—Anne MacGregor, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, author of Understanding Migraine and Other Headaches

In her meticulously researched book, Katherine Foxhall offers a sensitive and humane account of a common condition: migraine. Wide-ranging in terms of its sources and covering a generous timespan, it significantly enhances our understanding of medical theories and treatments in both past and present, gives weight to patient experiences, and demonstrates the valuable contributions historians can make to contemporary debates about suffering and pain.
—Ludmilla Jordanova, Durham University, author of The Look of the Past: Visual And Material Evidence In Historical Practice

Ludmilla Jordanova

In her meticulously researched book, Katherine Foxhall offers a sensitive and humane account of a common condition: migraine. Wide-ranging in terms of its sources and covering a generous timespan, it significantly enhances our understanding of medical theories and treatments in both past and present, gives weight to patient experiences, and demonstrates the valuable contributions historians can make to contemporary debates about suffering and pain.

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