Apply and utilize the range of skills and historical methodologies it takes to decode the historical record because of its incomplete, complex, and contradictory nature:
For learning outcome one, I chose a segment from my Revolutionary Medicine class. Throughout the semester we had to read the book Blood Work by Holly Tucker. This assignment I feel best shows the ability to utilize the range of skills and historical methodologies by reading the text we were assigned. Furthermore, the history of medicine is complex as there are a lot of unethical and yet accepted practices that were performed at this time. One example of this is by using prisoners or drunk individuals for testing for blood transfusions.
Another example is using dogs to prove the theory that we could transfer blood through species. This was a very taboo science as many believed these scientists were playing God as well as a fear of creating hybrid humans. Though this is an unethical practice, as a historian, we must understand that was “accepted” at the time. As stated before, medicine is a very complex area where things were never easy, but we also have to understand that without these questionable practices, medicine might not have advanced. History is a foreign country; we must leave our bias at the door to understand it. Reading history from an unbiased standpoint is key to understanding the past.
