Popular Health Movement

The Popular Health Movement of the 1830s–1850s was an aspect of Jacksonian-era politics and society in the United States. The movement promoted a rational skepticism toward claims of medical expertise that were based on personal authority, and encouraged ordinary people to understand the pragmatics of health care.^[1] Arising in the spirit of Andrew Jackson's anti-elitist views,^[2] the movement succeeded in ending almost all government regulation of health care. During the first two decades of the 19th century, states had regularly enacted licensing legislation; by 1845, only three states still licensed medical doctors.^[3] Among the leading figures within the movement were Samuel Thomson and Sylvester Graham.^[4]

^ Paul Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine (Basic Books, 1982), p. 56; Joan Burbick, Healing the Republic: The Language of Health and the Culture of Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century America (Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 35–37.
^ Barbara Cable Nienstedt, "The Federal Approach to Alternative Medicine: Quackbusting, or Complementing," in Alternative Therapies (Springer, 1998), p. 27 online.
^ Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine, p. 58; Nienstedt, "The Federal Approach," p. 27.
^ Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine, pp. 47 online and 55ff.

[1] Paul Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine (Basic Books, 1982), p. 56; Joan Burbick, Healing the Republic: The Language of Health and the Culture of Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century America (Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 35–37.

[2] Barbara Cable Nienstedt, "The Federal Approach to Alternative Medicine: Quackbusting, or Complementing," in Alternative Therapies (Springer, 1998), p. 27 online.

[3] Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine, p. 58; Nienstedt, "The Federal Approach," p. 27.

[4] Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine, pp. 47 online and 55ff.

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