The religion of chiropractic : populist healing from the American heartland

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Title:

The religion of chiropractic : populist healing from the American heartland

Author:

Folk, Holly author.

ISBN:

9781469632780

9781469632797

Personal Author:

Folk, Holly author.

Physical Description:

xii, 351 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Contents:

The first adjustment -- A magnetic healer in Iowa -- From vital magnetism to vertebral vitalism -- On the frontier of the new profession -- Chiropractors on parade -- History repeats -- The world of chiropractic.

Subject Term:

Chiropractic -- United States -- History.

Medicine -- United States -- Religious aspects.

Chiropractic -- Study and teaching -- United States -- History.

Chiropractic. (OCoLC)fst00857914

Chiropractic -- Study and teaching. (OCoLC)fst00857937

Medicine -- Religious aspects. (OCoLC)fst01015038

Chiropractic -- history.

Manipulation, Chiropractic -- history.

Schools, Health Occupations -- history.

History, 18th Century.

History, 19th Century.

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
Searching... Sugar Grove - Todd Library	Book	RZ225 .U6 F65 2017	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

Chiropractic is by far the most common form of alternative medicine in the United States today, but its fascinating origins stretch back to the battles between science and religion in the nineteenth century. At the center of the story are chiropractic's colorful founders, D. D. Palmer and his son, B. J. Palmer, of Davenport, Iowa, where in 1897 they established the Palmer College of Chiropractic. Holly Folk shows how the Palmers' system depicted chiropractic as a conduit for both material and spiritualized versions of a "vital principle," reflecting popular contemporary therapies and nineteenth-century metaphysical beliefs, including the idea that the spine was home to occult forces.

The creation of chiropractic, and other Progressive-era versions of alternative medicine, happened at a time when the relationship between science and religion took on an urgent, increasingly competitive tinge. Many remarkable people, including the Palmers, undertook highly personal reinterpretations of their physical and spiritual worlds. In this context, Folk reframes alternative medicine and spirituality as a type of populist intellectual culture in which ideologies about the body comprise a highly appealing form of cultural resistance.

Reviews (1)

Library Journal Review

"To the man with a hammer, the world is a nail" is an axiom that applies to Folk's book on chiropractic. A professor of religious studies (Western Washington Univ.) specializing in American religious history, the author triangulates her narrative around the late 19th-century populist movement toward metaphysics, transcendentalism, and self-healing in response to dehumanizing industrialization of America and the "discovery" of chiropractic. In ultrascholarly language, Folk assigns religious status to the vitalist belief systems at the core of chiropractic philosophy, espoused by founder D.D. Palmer and his son, B.J. Palmer. Her narrow lens never quite assigns either modernity or legitimacy to what is now the most widely used complementary health-care modality in the United States, currently licensed and board-certified in all 50 states. Verdict Highly academic in tone and style, this book reads like the dissertation that it is. In other words, a snore for lay readers looking for a juicy read on two of the quirkiest characters in American history and their legacy. Recommended only for chiropractic college libraries or academic libraries with collections supporting Americana, populist movements, or the history of alternative medicine.-Janet Tapper, Univ. of Western States Lib., Portland, OR © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.