ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Negotiating Medical Authority: Physicians, Local Societies, and Emerging Middle-Class Identities in the Czech Lands before 1848

• In Event: Technical Professions and the Making of Middle Classes: Transnational Perspectives from the 19th to the 20th Century

English Abstract

The period before 1848 in the Czech lands witnessed major changes not only in politics and economy but also in the structure of society. One of the professional groups that rose in importance during this time were physicians. Their growing social prestige, the increasing institutionalization of medicine, and their involvement in building modern health-care infrastructure made them important figures in the formation of the state and of the emerging (proto)middle class.
This lecture explores the role of physicians in this development through case studies from northern Bohemia, a region that offers rich material for prosopographical research. Using sources such as professional records, correspondence with authorities, and information about property and social status, the lecture presents physicians as a group that became increasingly active. Their work in different social and administrative structures shows how the position of both urban and rural doctors changed during this period.
Discussions about public health and hygiene, the growth of medical institutions, the introduction of preventive measures, and the creation of early health-supervisory practices all helped redefine the role of physicians. These changes gave doctors new opportunities for professional advancement. A prosopographical approach helps reveal the links between their careers, their social mobility, and the broader processes of modernization that took place before the revolution of 1848. Northern Bohemia thus serves as a case study showing how physicians became crucial actors in early civil society and contributed to shaping middle-class values connected with health, public order, and the common good.

Author

• Tereza Liepoldová, Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Science; Center for Theoretical Study, Charles University Prague