Annotated Bibliography

Preface

This research journal is centered on two topics: Civil War medicine and American and Western involvement in China and the Far East during the 19th century, with a focus on the role of missionaries. These topics are connected to my class through Thomas McFadden, a surgeon during the Civil War, and Robert Maclay, a prominent Methodist missionary in China, Japan, and Korea in the mid 1800s. For both topics I tried to find both recent and older sources in order to see whether or not historians’ view of the topic has changed with time. For the former I had some difficulty finding books specific to missionaries so I searched more broadly for books dealing with Western imperialism in China and the Far East. Although these don’t provide much (if any) information about missionaries they do provide information about the larger political context in the region during the 19th century.

Journals

Flannery, Michael A. “Civil War Medicine: Approaches for Teaching.” OAH Magazine of History 19.5 (2005): 41-43. [JSTOR]

Michael Flannery is a professor of history at the University of Alabama-Birmingham and a member of the Academie internationale d’histoire de la pharmacie who has written extensively about medical history. This short article offers teachers advice on how to teach Civil War medicine to their students. The emphasis of the article in on the effects of illness and disease on the armies. Flannery also lists sources teachers should look at to find more information.

Hamilton, Marsha J. “MERCURY AND WATER: TWO CIVIL WAR SURGEONS OF THE 148TH PENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 75.4 (2008): 467-504. [JSTOR]

Marsha J. Hamilton is Professor Emeritus (retired) at The Ohio State University. She worked in the University Libraries. The article focuses on how the Union army went about recruiting surgeons to serve. There is also some discussion of the two schools of medicine prominent during this time period. The article is structured around the stories of two surgeons in the 148th Pennsylvania Volunteers, Dr. Uriah Davis and Dr. Alfred Hamilton, which provides a personal viewpoint to the topic. Hamilton uses a mixture of both primary and secondary sources for the article, including some of the letters and personal papers of Dr. Hamilton.

Lazich, Michael C. “American Missionaries and the Opium Trade in Nineteenth-Century China.” Journal of World History 17.2 (2006): 197-223. [JSTOR]

Michael Lazich is a professor of history at SUNY Buffalo specializing in East and Southeast Asian history. The article focuses on how American Missionaries responded to the opium trade in China and the role they played in shaping US policy around it. Lazich also discusses how the views of both the missionaries and the American government towards opium changed over time. Lazich relies on both primary and secondary sources for his information.

Shryock, Richard H. “A Medical Perspective on the Civil War.” American Quarterly 14.2 (1962): 161-73. [JSTOR]

Richard Shryock was a professor of history at Penn. He specialized in medical history and played a large role in professionalizing the field. This article, written before the medical history had become a widely studied field, explores the medical side of the Civil War. The article provides a good overview of the medical aspect of the conflict and discusses how the wounds of soldiers on both sides of the conflict were treated. Shryock almost exclusively uses secondary sources for his information.

Books

Bickers, Robert A. The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, 1832-1914. London: Allen Lane, 2011. [Google Books]

Robert Bickers is a professor at the University of Bristol specializing in modern Chinese history and the history of colonialism. He has written multiple books on Western imperialism in China. This book describes how the Western powers went about imperializing China and shows what it was like to be in China during this period. Bickers also discusses the effects Western imperialism had on both the Chinese and the Westerners. Although the focuses moreso on European rather than American imperialism, the book does a good job of providing context about what was happening on a larger scale while the missionaries were working on a more personal level with the Chinese. Google Books does not have the full text.

Bollet, Alfred J. Civil War Medicine: Challenges and Triumphs. Tucson, AZ: Galen, 2002. [Library Catalog]

Dr. Alfred Bollet is a professor of medicine at Yale who has written extensively about medicine during the Civil War. This book reexamines the beliefs held by scholars and the general public alike and uses both primary and secondary sources to explain why the majority of these beliefs are false and show that medicine and health care during the Civil War was in fact quite good. Through the use of anecdotes Bollet also helps his readers understand what day to day life was like for both the doctors and their patients during the conflict.

Flynt, Wayne, and Gerald W. Berkley. Taking Christianity to China: Alabama Missionaries in the Middle Kingdom, 1850-1950. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama, 1997. [Google Books]

Wayne Flynt is a professor emeritus of history at Auburn University who specializes in Southern culture and religion. He has written numerous books and one is one of the most prominent and widely recognized scholar of the South. Gerald Berkley is a former professor of history and director of the East Asian studies department at the University of Guam. He has published multiple articles as well as book concerning East Asia. This book describes focuses on the experiences of Alabama missionaries in China during the mid 19th century and discusses the views and attitudes of the missionaries and how these changed over time. Although the scope of the work is a little limited it still provides valuable information about the missionary experience in China.

McOmie, William. “The Opening Of Japan, 1853-1855: A Comparative Study Of The American, British, Dutch And Russian Naval Expeditions To Compel The Tokugawa Shogunate To Conclude Treaties And Open Ports To Their Ships.” n.p.: Global Oriental, 2006. Africa-Wide Information. [Library Catalog]

William McOmie is an associate professor of foreign languages at Kanagawa University in Japan. While working on this book he was a visiting professor at the Center for Japanese studies at UC Berkley. This book provides an in depth overview of the Western attempts to “open up” Japan to western ships and business. While McOmie does not focus on missionaries the book is useful for understanding the context and political climate in Japan during the time period.