The course surveys the fascinating transformations in modern medicine from the late 18th to the mid-20th century, while examining their scientific, social and cultural contexts: from the village doctor’s bloodletting to the hospital pathologist’s post-mortem, from anatomy to laboratory medicine, from the quarantine of a cholera-stricken ship to the cleaning of streets to eradicate poisonous miasma, from caring for the sick to fighting bacteria, and from research of heredity to visions of genetically managing populations (eugenics).The role of doctors and the relations between them and their patients, on the one hand, and the state, on the other; perceptions regarding the nature of health and disease; and the practices for healing individual and social maladies all went through astonishing changes. We will study these changes, and get to know different approaches to their analysis and understanding. NB: Participation in the course requires attending the lectures and the weekly reading of historical sources and academic papers in English