Herbs and Roots: A History of Chinese Doctors in the American Medical Marketplace

by Tamara Venit Shelton

An innovative, deeply researched history of Chinese medicine in America and the surprising interplay between Eastern and Western medical practice

Chinese medicine has a long history in the United States, with written records dating back to the American colonial period. In this intricately crafted history, Tamara Venit Shelton chronicles the dynamic systems of knowledge, therapies, and materia medica crossing between China and the United States from the eighteenth century to the present. Chinese medicine, she argues, has played an important and often unacknowledged role in both facilitating and undermining the consolidation of medical authority among formally trained biomedical scientists in the United States. Practitioners of Chinese medicine, as racial embodiments of “irregular” medicine, became useful foils for Western physicians struggling to assert their superiority of practice. At the same time, Chinese doctors often embraced and successfully employed Orientalist stereotypes to sell their services to non-Chinese patients skeptical of modern biomedicine. What results is a story of racial constructions, immigration politics, cross-cultural medical history, and the lived experiences of Asian Americans in American history.

Genres: History

368 pages, Hardcover

First published November 26, 2019

Reviews

[bookblogjourney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Herbs and Roots: A History of Chinese Doctors in the American Medical Marketplace by Tamara Venit Shelton explores the centuries-old influence of Chinese medicine in America. Shelton, an associate professor of history at Claremont McKenna College, chronicles the dynamic systems of knowledge, therapies, and materia medica between Eastern and Western medical practices. Her book highlights how Chinese doctors marketed their services as natural medicine alternatives. The book delves into the history of Chinese medicine in the U.S., dating back to 1799, and how it was perceived by Americans. Shelton’s research also touches on the experiences of Asian Americans in the U.S. and the role of Chinese cultural medicine. Shelton’s work sheds light on the forgotten transnational history of Chinese herbal medicine in North America.

[Madamemaura]

I think that this an important book because it compares Chinese medicine to Western medicine and how it was difficult for Chinese practitioners to settle and practice in the West. Chinese medicine has a more holistic approach and uses herbs and roots, and other natural remedies whereas Western medicine is more rooted in pharmacology and drugs...if anyone disagrees with this, let me know...I have a profound respect for Chinese medicine since reading about it and how it involves a whole lifestyle of diet, spiritual wellness, etc.

[Juliet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, a stimulating account of an understudied aspect of US history, but sometimes belabored arguments to the point of boredom. Anecdotes at the head of each chapter added an engaging personal touch.

[Alexandra Davis]

AMES 142: History of Chinese Medicine

Introduction
1) Herbs and Roots
2) Transplanted
3) Translated
4) Chinese Quacks
5) Oriental Healers
6) Decline
7) Rediscovery
Epilogue: A New Medicine