Mrs. Robinson's Revenge: Pete Seeger, Earl Robinson, and the Medicare Protest Song.

In 1962, Pete Seeger recorded "The Ballad of Doctor Dearjohn" about Canadian Medicare and the Saskatchewan doctors' strike of the same year. How had this New Yorker, recently relieved of a jail sentence, learned of Medicare in the distant prairie province? And why was his song never released? This paper traces the ballad's fortunes through the papers of composer Earl Robinson (University of Washington) and the archives of the American Medical Association. It is situated in the historiography of folk revival and the expatriate adventures of artistic Americans persecuted in the McCarthy era.

En 1962, Pete Seeger a enregistré « La ballade du docteur Dearjohn ¼ à propos de l'assurance-maladie canadienne et de la grève des médecins en Saskatchewan la même année. Comment ce New-Yorkais, récemment libéré de prison, a-t-il eu connaissance des événements survenant dans une province éloignée ? Et pourquoi sa chanson n'a-t-elle jamais été commercialisée ? Cet article retrace le parcours de la ballade à travers les archives du compositeur Earl Robinson (Université de Washington) et les archives de l'American Medical Association (Chicago). Il se situe dans l'historiographie du renouveau folk et des aventures d'artistes américains expatriés suite aux persécutions vécues à l'époque du maccarthysme.

Mrs. Robinson's Revenge: Pete Seeger, Earl Robinson, and the Medicare Protest Song.

In 1962, Pete Seeger recorded "The Ballad of Doctor Dearjohn" about Canadian Medicare and the Saskatchewan doctors' strike of the same year. How had this New Yorker, recently relieved of a jail sentence, learned of Medicare in the distant prairie province? And why was his song never released? This article traces the ballad's fortunes through the papers of composer Earl Robinson (University of Washington) and the archives of the American Medical Association. It is situated in the historiography of folk revival and the expatriate adventures of artistic Americans persecuted in the McCarthy era.

A tale of two diseases: the history of inflammatory bowel disease.

'Inflammatory bowel disease' (IBD) sounds like a straightforward term - a disease of inflammation in the bowel. However, the history of IBD reveals a story of a nefariously complex set of idiopathic conditions. IBD defies definition, in part because its pathophysiology is not completely understood. For the same reason and despite substantial advances in research, IBD also defies cure. At best, IBD can be defined as a disease of disruption - disrupted physiology, microbiology, immunology and genetics. The term 'IBD' is most often used to describe two separate conditions: ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD). This paper reviews the history of IBD, considering the ever-evolving understanding of both UC and CD. Beyond its intrinsic interest, the history of IBD exemplifies a pattern that is becoming increasingly familiar in the 21st century - the story of a chronic, incurable disease that defies the best efforts to treat it.

Medical miracles and the longue durée.

The hematologist-historian author became interested in the nature 'medical miracles', following a request to write a report on a set of bone marrows that was sent to the Vatican as a possible miracle cure in a cause for canonization. She questioned the prevalence of medical miracles, their structure, and relationship to other 'official' miracles that are recognized by the Church. Evidence was drawn from a variety of sources: oral testimony of pilgrims at feast day celebrations, ex voto paintings, and 160 miracle files in 67 canonization records of the Vatican Archives. Some changes can be detected through time, but the results also testify to remarkable longue durée in the healing experience: the patterns of suffering and despair, the gestures of pleading, the presence of beds and dreams, the astonishment of the caregivers, and above all the simultaneous recourse to medicine and religion both.