Do Less Harm Ethical Questions for Health Historians

Offers reflections, provocative questions, and practical strategies for ethical, responsible approaches to health history.

In Do Less Harm, editors Courtney E. Thompson and Kylie M. Smith bring together a group of leading historians and scholars to confront one of the most pressing questions in health history: How can we ethically approach stories of medicine and health without perpetuating harm? This thought-provoking collection invites readers into a crucial conversation about the responsibilities of historians when documenting the past.

Through carefully curated essays, the contributors explore the ethical dilemmas that arise in researching, teaching, and writing about the history of health care. From patient privacy to the politics of archives, the essays cover how health histories have often overlooked, misunderstood, or misrepresented the people and communities most affected by medical practices. The contributors challenge the assumptions of the field, offering a more thoughtful approach to historical research—one that emphasizes empathy, accountability, and inclusivity.

The book raises provocative questions and proposes practical strategies for historians and scholars to do less harm in their work and is organized around key themes such as research, teaching, writing, and public engagement, making it an indispensable resource for anyone working in the history of health care, ethics, or the health humanities. With its engaging style and accessible insights, Do Less Harm offers a fresh and timely perspective for academics, students, and readers interested in the ethical challenges of representing the past.

Courtney E. Thompson is an associate professor of history at Mississippi State University. She is the author of An Organ of Murder: Crime, Violence, and Phrenology in Nineteenth-Century America.

Kylie M. Smith is an associate professor and the director of the Center for Healthcare History and Policy at Emory University. She is the author of Talking Therapy: Knowledge and Power in American Psychiatric Nursing.