ORCID Identifier(s)

0000-0001-5554-1400

Graduation Semester and Year

2019

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in History

Department

History

First Advisor

Steven G Reinhardt

Abstract

The health reform movements of the nineteenth and early twentieth century impacted American and European societies in profound ways. These reforms, while usually represented in a national context, existed within a transatlantic framework that facilitated a multitude of exchanges and transfers. John Harvey Kellogg—surgeon, health reformer, and inventor of cornflakes—developed a transatlantic network of health reformers, medical practitioners, and scientists to improve his own reforms and establish new ones. Through intercultural transfer Kellogg borrowed, modified, and implemented European health reform practices at his Battle Creek Sanitarium in the United States. These transfers facilitated developments in reform movements such as vegetarianism, light therapy, sex, and eugenics. While health reform movements were a product of the modern world in which science and rationality were given preference, Kellogg infused his religious, Seventh-day Adventist beliefs into the reforms he practiced. In some cases health reform movements were previously semi-religious in nature and Kellogg merely accentuated an already present narrative of religious obligation for reform. These beliefs in salvific health reform centered around Kellogg's desire to perfect the human body physically and spiritually in an attempt to make it fit for translation into heaven.

Keywords

John Harvey Kellogg, Health reform, Vegetarianism, Sex, Religion, Light therapy, Eugenics, Transatlantic, Intercultural transfer, American health reform, European health reform, Cornflakes

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | History

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

Download

Included in

History Commons

Share

COinS