The life of Henry E. Sigerist - academic scholarship vs. social activism

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to investigate chronologically the life of Sigerist as follows: (i) how Henry Sigerist (1891-1957) became interested in medical history, (ii) how he succeeded Karl Sudhoff (1853-1938) as professor of the history of medicine in the University of Leipzig, (iii) why he came to the Johns Hopkins in 1932, (iv) what he did for health care reform in the U.S. and Canada, (v) why he returned to his motherland in 1947, and (vi) how health professions have been globally influenced by his life. Based on the solid academic scholarship of medical history and sociology, Sigerest was energetically engaged in health care reform. What distinguished his social activism from other health care reformers is that wheras most health care reformers take the positivism-centered perspective to transform the existing health care system, Sigerist integrated historical vision with sociologically a pedagogic mission to pursue health care progress.