Browsing by Author "Heaton, Matthew M."
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- The Doctor Who Would Be King [Book review]Heaton, Matthew M. (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024-06)
- Fear and Fortune: Robbery in London in the Late Eighteenth CenturyPaxton, William R. (Virginia Tech, 2013-06-17)Public representation of highwaymen and footpads in the press spawned a climate of fear in London. Descriptions of the violence that highwaymen and footpads employed in the course of their crimes generated this fear. Violence set them apart from other non- or less-violent thefts that occurred in much greater numbers in the capital, but received less coverage in the public discussion of crime at the time. Victims of robbery came from all different social classes and demographic groups, and this too contributed to the fear by creating an image of robbers who could attack anyone at any time. This ardent fear appeared to have overshadowed some of the new social and economic explanations of criminals' motives and emerging humanitarian approaches to crime prevention. The court records suggest that highwaymen and footpads were often young men who operated in organized gangs and used violence to create fear and ensure success in their attack -- and this paralleled the public perceptions. However, the trials show that women did in fact account for a small -- but noticeable -- percentage of robbers, and robbers also acted individually as well as in groups. The court proceedings also
- Indian and American Demography, Expertise, and the Family Planning Consensus: 1930-1970Bolin, Nicholas John (Virginia Tech, 2019-11-19)Indian population policy in the twentieth century was shaped by a blend of unique Indian concerns about population growth, legacies of British colonialism, and American foreign aid. This blend of influences resulted in the first national family planning program in the world.
- Politics, Economy, and Society in Twentieth-Century Nigeria [Book review]Heaton, Matthew M. (Routledge, 2024-08-20)
- Promoting Positivity: Securing Memphis's Image in Times of CrisisNehrt, Jennifer Lynn (Virginia Tech, 2017-06-29)Situating the 1878 yellow fever epidemic in Memphis's long history shows how concern over Memphis's national reputation influenced how city leaders dealt with crisis. Throughout its history, Memphis government officials and business leaders promoted Memphis as a good city to do business, free from disease and racial strife. Despite their best efforts, they could not deny explosive incidents of racially-based violence or disease outbreaks. Instead, they tried to mitigate negative repercussions on the local economy during times of crisis. When the 1878 yellow fever epidemic struck, the Citizen's Relief Committee, the impromptu government formed by business leaders after outbreak, promoted Memphis as a functioning white city that was operating the best it could under terrible circumstances so the city could resume normal economic activity once the fever passed. This became the dominant narrative, repeated by newspapers across the country in 1878 and historians today. This narrative is problematic because it ignores black Memphians, who composed of 80% of the city's population after outbreak. Instead of recognizing black Memphians participation in relief activities, they promoted stories in the media about lazy or riotous African Americans to justify denying sufficient aid to the black community. Catholics had better luck earning the gratitude of Memphis's leaders. They worked with the white government and charities as nurses and fundraisers, and earned a glowing reputation in national newspapers. The inclusion of African Americans and Catholics in this thesis tells a more complete story and challenges white Memphians' carefully cultivated narrative.
- "That mountain is like a drug store": Knowledge and Medicine in Southern Appalachia, 1900-1933Boggs, Eleanor Louise (Virginia Tech, 2018-07-22)This thesis argues that although historians treat the relationship between professional medicine and folk medicine in Southern Appalachia as a competition and place Appalachian folk medicine as a victim of professionalization, the two forms of medicine are best understood as systems of knowledge. Through interviews, medical journals and administrative records, medical school records, and other archival sources, I trace how gender, race, and class shaped knowledge in Appalachian folk medicine and professional medicine during Prohibition and the early twentieth century. Despite the characterization of folk medicine as a victim to professionalization, I find that people in Southern Appalachia actively understood and engaged with shifting ideas of health and constant concerns over the high costs of medicine and limited accessibility to doctors throughout the twentieth century.