A Historiographical Review of the History of Western Medicine, 2011–2020 The Diversification of Subject Matter and the Search for a New Methodology

Abstract

In recent decades, the history of medicine has seen additional experimentation with the changing understanding of the relationship between medicine and society, especially with the emergence of a knowledge-and information-based society and globalization. Furthermore, historians have attempted to establish the value of the history of medicine in response to changing perceptions of medicine and history in the twenty-first century. Their efforts have vitalized the field of medical history by treating it as a useful lens for observing medicine's past as well as formulating critical questions about its present.