The Emerging Quest for Relevance in the History of Medicine and Science

The history of medicine and history of science have varied over time in terms of how much scholars have considered issues of relevance to contemporary society. The Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, for example, emerged in 1946 from a sense that history could speak to current health issues. By the 1960s and 1970s, historians of medicine seemed to cede the question of relevance to scholars in history departments who were motivated by liberal political views and used their history to speak for social justice. Historians who addressed relevant topics often published their work in books, increasingly for general audiences.

Academic journals were more sheltered. But in the last decade there has been a growing awareness among historians of medicine and science that history is not just interesting or potentially relevant, but actually an essential tool to teach critical thinking to students in medicine and the sciences in a way that is entirely relevant to the present. [Publisher's text]