Doctoral Dissertation Research in History of Science and Law and Social Sciences

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Doctoral student: Sarah W. Tracy; Dissertation Title: "The Medicalization of Alcoholism in America, 1870-1919." Under the direction of Dr. Charles Rosenberg, Ms Tracy is undertaking a socio-historical study of the late 19th and early 20th century attempt to "medicalize" alcohol abuse and alcoholism, what was then called inebriety. She is examining a random sample of patient records from the Massachusetts Hospital for Dipsomaniacs and Inebriates at the Massachusetts State Archives, newspaper accounts of the hospital found in The Foxborough Reporter contained in the Foxborough Town Library, and the incompetency hearings of inebriates from the New York County Court of Common Pleas contained in the Division of Old Records at the New York County Clerk's Office in New York City. These sources provide crucial insight into 1) the manner in which the medical understanding of inebriety altered legal practice and social welfare policy; 2) the validity of the social control hypothesis as a guiding principle in the institutional treatment of inebriates; 3) the currency of the disease concept of inebriety within urban judicial and social welfare systems; 4) the influence of such variables as gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic status on the classification and treatment of inebriates in a court of law and an institution specifically for the management of people with alcohol problems. This study promises significant contributions to the history of science and to our understanding of social control processes and the interaction of law and medicine. The data collected in this study will be placed in a social science archive within one calendar year of the completion of this award.