PROMISING CURES: The Pursuit of Health in a 19th Century New England Community: Lynn, Massachusetts Hardcover – September 10, 2022

The community of Lynn, Massachusetts, was like the rest of New England in the 1800s, but populated by individuals with their own unique stories to tell. Its residents were attacked by cholera, diphtheria, scarlet fever, typhoid, and dysentery; women died in childbirth; babies died before they took their first steps; and adults and children were mangled by factory machinery. Enjoyment of life was precious to each of them, but often stolen away too soon.To fight pain, sickness, and death, they turned to their own creativity, old family recipes, a never-ending stream of promising cures, and emerging science-based medicines. No matter the origin of the remedy, the only critical ingredient was success.It’s far too easy to call the past a time of quacks and gullible bumpkins, of villains and heroes. The 19th century was instead an era of experimentation and improvement practiced by as wide an assortment of average people, scoundrels, and reformers as we have among us today. Promising Cures proves this to be the case.Be prepared to be transported into a different time and place; walk among your ancestors. See life through their eyes and learn about the courage, miracles, and dumb luck that enabled you to be who you are today.Meticulously researched, creatively written with dollops of drama, humor, and a steady stream of historical accuracy, and enlivened with fascinating remnants of Lynn’s health history, Promising Cures will take you somewhere you’ve never been and will never forget – to the life you would have lived centuries earlier. Read more