Social History

Women and Healthcare in Early Modern Europe is a special issue of Renaissance Studies. (Vol. 28, no. 4, September 2014; Guest editor: Sharon T. Strocchia). This collection of essays by an international team of scholars brings fresh interpretive perspectives and impressive archival research to bear on the reappraisal of women’s medical activities in early modern Europe. Spanning England and the continent from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, the collection situates female practitioners not on the margins of medical practice but rather at the nexus of household medicine, emerging structures of public health, and the production of medical knowledge. The essays demonstrate how increased demand for healthcare services in the early modern period opened new opportunities for women’s participation in a variety of health-related activities, from pharmacy and ‘physick’ to the provision of care. Drawing on a wide range of sources—court records, letters, inventories, printed herbals, parish account books, physicians’ journals, proceedings of state health boards—the collection showcases how innovative public health initiatives capitalized on domestic medical skills and probes sites of knowledge production and exchange outside university and guild settings. Whether spotlighting local artisans and noblewomen who worked without formal compensation or ‘expert’ practitioners who purveyed their skills in the marketplace, the essays cast new light on women’s claims to medical expertise and their self-perception as healers. Taking up issues of importance for Renaissance scholars working across the disciplines, this collection re-orients our understanding of how healthcare was organized, practiced and gendered in early modern Europe.
Table of Contents:
• Sharon T. Strocchia, Introduction: Women and Healthcare in Early Modern Europe
• Debra Blumenthal, Domestic Medicine: Slaves, Servants, and Female Medical Expertise in Late Medieval Valencia
• Alisha Rankin, Exotic Materials and Treasured Knowledge: The Valuable Legacy of Noblewomen’s Remedies in Early Modern Germany
• Elaine Leong, ‘Herbals she peruseth’: Reading Medicine in Early Modern England
• Richelle Munkhoff, Poor Women and Parish Public Health in Sixteenth-Century London
• Jane Stevens Crawshaw, Families, Medical Secrets and Public Health in Early Modern Venice
• Annemarie Kinzelbach, Women and Healthcare in Early Modern German Towns
The articles by Leong and Stevens Crawshaw are available open access, and plans are underway to make the editor's Introduction open access in the near future.

Propašću jugoslovenske države, njenim vojnim slomom i rasparčavanjem njene teritorije i represivnim sistemom nadzora i terora koje uvode okupatori i njegovi pomagači, otpočeo je veoma dug i težak period u životima ljudi koji su živeli na jugoslovenskom prostoru. Život je bio posebno težak za one koji se nisu pomirili s novonastalom situacijom, za one koji su i rečima i delima ustali protiv ropstva i torture, ali i za one koji su samim svojim postojanjem bili proglašeni za neprijatelje novog poretka. Nacionalsocijalizam je proklamovao rasnu inferiornost pojedinih naroda i odredio ili da budu uništeni ili daq budu robovi u novom, arijevskom i germanocentričnom poretku, ali je takođe proklamovao i urođeno neprijateljstvo pojedinih društvenih grupa prema superiornoj germanskoj rasi i njenoj avangardi, Nemačkom Rajhu. Nemačku vojnu okupaciju i uspostavljanje vojne vlasti ili predaju vlasti u ruke njihovih domaćih saradnika je neizostavno pratio i progon Jevreja, Roma, levičara, masona i homoseksualaca. Situacija u Srbiji se nije mnogo razlikovala od one u ostatku Evrope. Međutim, istoriografija do danas nije posvetila dovoljno pažnje proučavanju fenomena položaja marginalnih društvenih grupa u periodu okupacije. Dok se o položaju masona ponešto i može saznati, položaj homoseksualaca u okupiranoj Srbiji je još uvek potpuna misterija. Ovo istraživanje upravo ima za cilj da baci malo više svetlosti na datu temu. Prevashodno, cilj je da se istraže arhivski fondovi i pronađu relevantna dokumenta koja bi pomogla da se osvetle neki od problema zakonskog položaja homoseksualaca u okupiranoj Srbiji, kriminalizacije homoseksualnosti, odnosa nemačkih vojnih, bezbednosnih i obaveštajnih organa vlasti i uprave prema homoseksualcima, odnosa srpskih kolaboracionističkih organa uprave prema homoseksualcima, ideološkog određivanja prema homoseksualcima; da se mapiraju eventualni primeri progona i likvidacije homoseksualaca, primeri ucenjivanja kojima su pribegavale okupacione i kolaboracionističke vlasti, da se utvrdi kakav je bio odnoš šire javnosti prema homoseksualcima i prema merama represije kojoj je bila podvrgnuta. Istraživanje ove problematike je izuzetno teško, pre svega zbog toga što homoseksualna ni pre okupacije ni posle nje nije bila ni društveno ni zakonski prihvaćena, te je velika većina homoseksualaca svoju seksualnost krila i nije o svom životu govorila niti ostavljala pisane tragove. Zbog toga svaki pomak u istraživanju, svaki novi dokument, svaka novootkrivena činjenica predstavlja izuzetan doprinos za dalja istraživanja i obogaćuje naš korpus saznanja o Drugom svetskom ratu i periodu okupacije u Srbiji. Takođe, svako novo otkriće čini da homoseksualna zajednica polako prestaje da bude nevidljiva u srpskoj istoriji.

This article tracks the life of Frederick Douglass, from being a slave to becoming an anti-slavery orator and author. It  recounts his visit to Limerick, analyzing his lectures and providing some background and context. It concludes by discussing some of the themes that his visit raises in relation to Fr. Mathew, Abolitionism and his legacy. It was in Limerick that Douglass first spoke on his own terms about his transformation from a chattel into a man.

The Art Nouveau movement overlapped with late Arts and Crafts in the 1890s and early Modernism in the 1910, combining the exquisite workmanship and natural forms of the former with the innovative materials, forms and practices associated with the latter. Art Nouveau Fashion provides a fascinating introduction to the style, defining it and placing it in the context of design history by focussing on a number of important designers – Worth, Lucile, Paquin, Poiret – and key subjects such as jewellery and accessories, the role of advertising, artists as designers, and the relationships between designers and their clients.
Art Nouveau fashion daringly questioned conventional gender norms, presenting women with suits influenced by tailored menswear as well as overtly seductive lingerie. Fashionable corsets manipulated women’s bodies into increasingly artificial forms, while advertising seduced consumers with images of scantily clad models. The movement’s radicalism and eclecticism directly influenced the counter-culture of the late 1960s – inspiring boutiques in London’s Carnaby Street and San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury – and Art Nouveau fashion continues to resonate today. This book lays out the legacy of this fascinating movement using a wealth of unseen images and historic sources.