[The following text is an edited version of a presentation “A Treasure Trove of Alcohol Science: The Digital Alcohol Studies Archives at Rutgers” hosted by the Scholarly and Professional Activity Committee of Rutgers University Libraries on December 1, 2021. See more.] I am a PhD candidate in the English department here at Rutgers. That means … Read More
Only in the 19th century did the word “addicted” acquire the medical specificity it has today. Before this strong sense of chemical dependence it referred to any strong inclination, usually frowned upon – eighteenth-century Britons are described as “addicted” to judgmental gossip (in Samuel Richardson’s 1748 novel Clarissa), to swearing (in a 1759 open letter … Read More
E.M. Jellinek may have provided the disease concept of alcoholism with its manifesto, but Dr. H.W. Haggard conferred the medical credibility and institutional clout it needed to survive. Haggard was born in La Porte, Indiana in April 1891 and attended elite boarding school Philips Exeter Academy. He received his BA and MD from Yale University, … Read More
The study of alcoholism does not just reward but practically demands an interdisciplinary approach, a capacity to navigate and synthesize medical science, psychology, sociology, and more. In this way we might say it takes after its father: E. M. Jellinek, a polyglot and polymath who delighted in jumping between registers of meaning––a fascination apparent in … Read More