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The two modules you will be examined in for this course are Medicine Through Time and American West. The key questions and themes for both of these courses are outlined below.
Study in Development A: Medicine Through Time
This Study in Development examines continuities and changes in the history of medicine. It
focuses, in each of the periods identified below, on a common set of key questions:
• what caused people to be healthy or unhealthy?
• what ideas did people have about the causes and treatment of illness and injuries?
• who provided medical care?
• what caused diagnoses and treatments to remain the same or to change?
• how far did new ideas and treatments affect the majority of the population?
Candidates should develop a knowledge and understanding of the main developments in the
history of medicine.
(i) Medicine in prehistoric times:
the nature of the evidence, its values and its problems;
beliefs in spirits and the treatments used by medicine men;
practical knowledge and resulting treatments.
(ii) Medicine in the ancient world:
(a) Ancient Egypt:
the development of Egyptian civilisation and its impact on medicine;
the co-existence in Egyptian society of spiritual and natural beliefs and treatments;
developments in the understanding of physiology, anatomy and the causes of disease;
Egyptian hygiene.
(b) Ancient Greece:
Asclepios and temple medicine;
the theory of the four humours and resulting treatments;
Hippocrates and the clinical method of observation;
health and hygiene;
developments in knowledge of anatomy and surgery at Alexandria.
(c) Ancient Rome:
Roman medicine and Greek ideas and doctors;
the Romans and public health;
Galen’s ideas about physiology, anatomy and treatment.
(iii) Medicine in the Middle Ages:
the impact of the collapse of the Roman Empire on medicine;
the impact of Christianity and Islam on medicine;
the reasons for the acceptance of Galenic medicine;
the continuance of supernatural beliefs and treatments;
developments in surgery;
living conditions and health and hygiene;
domestic medicine, childbirth, the role of women;
hospitals and caring for the ill.
(iv) The medical renaissance and the growth of modern medicine:
the rebirth of Greek ideas of careful observation of nature;
Vesalius and advances in knowledge of anatomy;
Paré and developments in surgery;
Harvey and developments in physiology;
the extent of the impact of these developments on the medical treatment of the majority of
the population;
the growth of a medical profession and the reduced role of women in medical care;
inoculation, and Jenner and vaccination.
(v) Medicine in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries:
(a) Fighting disease:
Pasteur and the development of the germ theory of disease;
Koch and developments in bacteriology;
developments in drugs and vaccines;
the development of penicillin;
the battle against infectious and non-infectious disease today;
the development of hospitals and caring for the ill, including the contributions of
Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole.
(b) Surgery:
developments in anaesthetics and antiseptics, including the work of Simpson and
Lister;
developments in blood transfusion;
modern surgery – transplanting organs and plastic surgery.
(c) Public health:
the impact of industrialisation on living conditions and health and hygiene;
the development of public health systems;
the reforms of the Liberal governments, 1906-1914;
the introduction and impact of the National Health Service;
the continuing debate about the provision of health care.
STUDY IN DEPTH C: THE AMERICAN WEST, 1840-95
This Study in Depth concentrates on the way in which the American West was settled and
developed by various groups of people between 1840-95, and the impact of this settlement on
the Plains Indians. It encourages candidates to explore the key features and characteristics of
the period. Emphasis should be placed on the reasons for the settlement of the American West,
the conflicts, which resulted from the clash of different cultures and life-styles and the
consequences of these conflicts. The study also offers a contrast between the people and ideas
of the American West during this period and ourselves.
Key Question 1: How did the Plains Indians live on the Great
Plains?
Focus Points
Why did many white Americans at first regard the Great Plains as the ‘Great American
Desert’?
How were the Plains Indians able to live on the Great Plains?
What were the beliefs of the Plains Indians?
Did all Plains Indians have the same beliefs and the same way of life?
Specified Content
The nature of the Great Plains. Attitudes towards the ‘Great American Desert’. The beliefs
and way of life of different Plains Indians tribes, including religious beliefs, medicine men,
attitudes towards the land, shelter and hunting, the role of women, family life, political
organisation, warfare.
Key Question 2: Why did people settle and stay in the West?
Focus Points
What were the experiences of the first pioneer families in the 1840s when they travelled west?
Why did the Mormons go west?
How were the Mormons able to survive the journey and be successful in Salt Lake Valley?
Why did people move west to become homesteaders in the late 1860s and 1870s?
How did the homesteaders react to the many problems facing them on the Plains?
What was life like for women on the homesteads?
How important were the railroad and the railroad companies in opening up the West?
How successful were the government and local people in establishing law and order in the
mining towns?
Specified Content
The reasons why the first pioneer families moved west in the 1840s. The experiences of the
first pioneer families during the journey west. The Mormons: their origins, their experiences in
Salt Lake Valley. The significance of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. The impact of the
railroad and railroad companies. The reasons for the continued settlement of the West in the
late 1860s and 1870s including the Homestead Acts, the belief in ‘Manifest Destiny’ and the
hopes and aspirations of the settlers. The problems faced by the homesteaders on their
homesteads and their attempts to overcome them. The role of women on the homesteads.
Government, law and order; problems and attempted solutions.
Key Question 3: What were the consequences of the spread of cattle
ranching to the Plains?
Focus Points
How and why did cattle ranching spread from Texas to the Great Plains?
What was life really like for a cowboy?
Why were there problems of law and order in the cow towns?
Why did ranchers and homesteaders come into conflict with each other (with special reference
to the Johnson County War)?
Why had the open range come to an end by the 1890s?
Specified Content
Early cattle ranching in Texas. The reasons for the cattle rails and the development of cow
towns. Ranching on the Great Plains. The life and work of the cowboy: myth and reality. The
reasons for conflict between the ranchers and the homesteaders, including a case study of the
Johnson County War. The end of the open range.
Key Question 4: Why did white Americans and the Plains Indians find it so
difficult to reach a peaceful settlement of their differences?
Focus Points
Did all white Americans have the same attitudes towards the Indians?
Why did white Americans and Plains Indians come into conflict?
Why did the Policy of the American Government towards the Indians change so often between
1840 and 1868?
Why did the Indians win the Battle of the Little Big Horn?
How important was the Battle of the Little Big Horn in the eventual defeat of the Plains
Indians?
What was the purpose and effect of the reservations?
Specified Content
The attitudes of white Americans towards the Indians. The reasons for conflict between white
Americans and Plains Indians. The changing policy of the American Government towards the
Plains Indians; the reasons for, and consequences of, changes in policy. The causes and
consequences of the Plains Wars including the Battle of the Little Big Horn. The impact of the
reservations, the Plains Indians in the 1890s.
