{"id":433962,"date":"2020-05-13T11:53:13","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T15:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=433962"},"modified":"2025-03-22T08:55:02","modified_gmt":"2025-03-22T12:55:02","slug":"theodore-brown-receives-lifetime-achievement-award-from-american-association-for-the-history-of-medicine-433962","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/theodore-brown-receives-lifetime-achievement-award-from-american-association-for-the-history-of-medicine-433962\/","title":{"rendered":"Theodore Brown receives Lifetime Achievement Award from American Association for the History of Medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"
Theodore Brown<\/a>, a URochester professor emeritus of history and public health sciences, is the recipient of this year\u2019s Genevieve Miller Lifetime Achievement Award<\/a> from the American Association for the History of Medicine<\/a> (AAHM).<\/p>\n Over the course of a long and distinguished career, Brown has been \u201ca major contributor to the historical understanding of US health policy and politics, as well as the history of both US and international public health,\u201d says John Harley Warner<\/a>, the Avalon Professor of the History of Medicine at Yale University and a member of the AAHM\u2019s Lifetime Achievement Award committee.<\/p>\n First established in 1988, the lifetime award is given annually to a member of the association who has retired from regular institutional practice with a distinguished record of support for the history of medicine, and who has continued to make important scholarly contributions.<\/p>\n Brown\u2019s research interests run the gamut from US health policy and politics, to the history of psychosomatic medicine, stress research, and biopsychosocial approaches to clinical practice. Prior to his retirement in 2018, he had been the University\u2019s inaugural Charles E. and Dale L. Phelps Professor of Public Health and Policy, a position he held for five years.<\/p>\n His articles and coauthored books, among them Making Medical History: The Life and Times of Henry E. Sigerist<\/a> (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997)<\/em>,\u00a0Comrades in Health: US Health Internationalists, Abroad and at Home<\/em><\/a> (Rutgers University Press, 2013)<\/em>, and\u00a0a comprehensive history of the World Health Organization<\/a> published in 2019 by Cambridge University Press\u2014 along with his \u201ccritical labor\u201d in editing the Rochester Studies in the History of Medicine<\/em> book series and a regular historical section for the\u00a0American Journal of Public Health<\/em>\u2014\u201chave advanced the cutting edge of medical historical scholarship and shaped the work of other historians,\u201d says Warner.\u00a0\u201cThrough his scholarship, mentorship, and leadership in organizations such as the Sigerist Circle of the American Association for the History of Medicine, he has been particularly instrumental in infusing issues of health activism, health disparities, and the American health left into the fabric of the mainstream history of medicine and public health.\u201d<\/p>\n Gloria\u00a0Culver<\/a>, dean of the University\u2019s School of Arts & Sciences, hails Brown for his leadership and collegiality. \u201cHe is a wonderful scholar and his impact on the field will be felt for years to come.\u00a0My first thoughts when I heard the news was that this is not surprising\u2014it\u2019s so very well deserved.\u00a0Ted is a leader and an amazing colleague.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>Among the books Brown has authored or coauthored is the whimsical The Quest for Health Care Reform: A Satirical History<\/em><\/a>, published by the American Public Health Association in 2012.<\/p>\n Through more than 200 political cartoons, the book tells the story of a century of wrangling over national health policy\u2014from Theodore Roosevelt’s support for protection from the “hazards of sickness” in 1912 to the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act in 2012.<\/p>\n \u201cPolitical cartoons cut to the essence of our battle over who should foot the bill for medical coverage and how that care should be structured,\u201d explained Brown, one of four authors of the book, in an interview in 2012. \u201cBut unlike the pain involved in our political struggle, cartoons deliver their uncomfortable truths with such irreverent wit and visual imagination that you can’t help but chuckle.\u201d<\/p>\n Brown has continued to research and write past his retirement from teaching, notably completing The World Health Organization: A History<\/em><\/a> just last year, \u00a0with Marcos Cueto<\/a>,<\/strong> a professor at the Casa de Oswaldo Cruz, a unit of Fiocruz, the main Brazilian biomedical institute, and the\u00a0late Elizabeth Fee<\/a>\u2014a frequent collaborator and close friend of Brown\u2019s\u2014who had been the senior historian at the National Library of Medicine<\/a>.<\/p>\n The book, 10 years in the making, is a comprehensive look at how world politics\u2014including the dynamics of the Cold War in the organization\u2019s early decades, and later the increasing involvement of nongovernmental and private players\u2014have influenced and shaped the WHO, its operations, and ultimately affected the fate of its mission. The authors evaluate the successes and failures of critical WHO campaigns, among them eradication programs for malaria and smallpox, as well as recent struggles with Ebola.<\/p>\n Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ physician and\u00a0historian<\/a>\u00a0Mical Raz<\/a>\u2014named the Charles E. and Dale L. Phelps Professor in Public Policy and Health after Brown\u2019s retirement\u2014says few people have had such an impact on the field of the history of medicine and public health.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has helped shaped a generation of scholars through his generous mentorship, while doctors throughout the country are better informed about the profession they practice thanks to transformative lectures they heard in training,\u201d says Raz. \u201cPersonally, Ted has been a longtime mentor and friend, and I owe much of my career to his kind and selfless guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n Laura Smoller<\/a>, a professor of history and chair of the Rochester Department of History<\/a>, credits Brown with providing a model of \u201cscholarly sociability\u201d from his research collaborations with notable scholars such as Fee, to his mentorship of younger historians, and his role as editor of the Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ Press series. Brown served as its editor for 15 years, with 45 books published on his watch.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has long been a towering figure in the history of public health and health care systems, Smoller adds. \u201cThis award is a fitting tribute to a research career that, with Ted\u2019s recent retirement, has only moved into a new and ever more active phase.\u201d<\/p>\nA history of health care reform through political cartoons<\/h3>\n

\nWATCH:<\/strong> Theodore Brown on the role of political cartoons<\/a> in shaping the US debate over health care reform.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n