The Religion of Chiropractic: Populist Healing from the American Heartland

by Holly Folk

Overview

Chiropractic is by far the most common form of alternative medicine in the United States today, but its fascinating origins stretch back to the battles between science and religion in the nineteenth century. At the center of the story are chiropractic's colorful founders, D. D. Palmer and his son, B. J. Palmer, of Davenport, Iowa, where in 1897 they established the Palmer College of Chiropractic. Holly Folk shows how the Palmers' system depicted chiropractic as a conduit for both material and spiritualized versions of a "vital principle," reflecting popular contemporary therapies and nineteenth-century metaphysical beliefs, including the idea that the spine was home to occult forces.

The creation of chiropractic, and other Progressive-era versions of alternative medicine, happened at a time when the relationship between science and religion took on an urgent, increasingly competitive tinge. Many remarkable people, including the Palmers, undertook highly personal reinterpretations of their physical and spiritual worlds. In this context, Folk reframes alternative medicine and spirituality as a type of populist intellectual culture in which ideologies about the body comprise a highly appealing form of cultural resistance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469632797
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	05/01/2017
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	366
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Holly Folk is associate professor of liberal studies at Western Washington University.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Offering fascinating insights into the chiropractic movement, its leaders, changing etiologies, and wider significance, Holly Folk provides a robust and original interpretation of the chiropractic narratives. With the fascinating and sometimes bizarre stories of the Palmer family here set into an argument of broad interest to scholars of religion and lay readers alike, I find myself thinking about the Palmers through the lens of today's manifestations of populist rhetoric.—Pamela Klassen, University of Toronto



Examining the spiritual elements that are foundational to chiropractic, as well as the physical practices for which chiropractic is best known, Holly Folk's critical history of chiropractic sets out new and previously uncharted territory within the larger context of American alternative medicine.—Timothy Miller, University of Kansas

Editorial Reviews

This brilliant and easily readable book may well become the standard for the treatment of the origins of chiropractic and its relationship with religion and spirituality for years to come.—Reading Religion



Very well written and organised.—Medical History



Will be of interest to members of the chiropractic profession . . . but also to those interested in the history of medicine and those who examine sociological contexts. . . . Provocative and interesting.—Doody's Notes



Her coverage of the chiropractors' metaphysical views makes for fascinating reading.—The Annals of Iowa



Folk has given us a rich, carefully drawn out, and historically grounded account of chiropractic's origin myth . . . . Through it all, Folk mounts a convincing case for the ways in which medicine, religion, and politics have been and remain deeply interconnected.—Journal of the American Academy of Religion



Religion of Chiropractic should be required reading for every student and practitioner of chiropractic, and highly recommended for every patient and healthcare provider or institution that interacts, or is considering engagement, with chiropractic. The book is written in an accessible, sometimes colloquial, style suitable for undergraduates and general readers, while also offering specialists precise information. The book is to be commended—and purchased.—Journal of the History of Medicine



Folk deftly places chiropratic within the context of nineteenth-century alternative medicine . . . The book is a veritable compendium of the most influential alternative mental and physical healers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the United States." —Nova Religio

From the Publisher

Reviewer: Dana J Lawrence, DC, MMedEd, MA (Parker University)
Description: The author notes in her introduction that the intent of this book is "to treat chiropractic as a case study to explore a persistent overlap of beliefs and practices found in many American subcultures." This ties the early development of chiropractic into both religious and vitalistic approaches then in vogue, while aligning them with historical developments in both culture and healthcare. She further ties this in to populism, which had a different meaning then than it does now. This is a novel approach to the early history of the profession.
Purpose: The purpose is to put the early development of the chiropractic profession into a context based on both vitalism and populism, and to look at this from a perspective tied as well to religion. This represents a form of historical ethnography and it is an approach I have not seen used before. From this perspective, the book generally meets its goal.
Audience: This will be of interest to members of the chiropractic profession, to be sure, but also to those interested in the history of medicine and those who examine sociological contexts such as subculture development (such as represented by Dick Hebdige). I profess I do not know the author, though it is clear she has spent time here at the college for which I work.
Features: This book dives into the early days of the chiropractic profession, examining and dissecting the profession's founder, DD Palmer, and his approach to the metaphysical movement common at that time. This explains how the concepts of innate and universal intelligence became imbued in the profession and how strategic placement of the profession in the intellectual realm of the day is responsible for its success. The book also examines the profession in light of religious practices and sects active then. Later, the book turns its attention to BJ Palmer and his evolution as a charismatic leader in the profession. The book closes with an update of the profession in modern times.
Assessment: One omission the book suffers from is that it does not examine other important early developments in the profession, such as the founding of National College in the early 1900s. This leaves the book without an alternative part of history that operated in part in opposition to Palmerism. Rather than metaphysics, the Howard days focused more on rationalism in its approach, and the book would be better served by discussing this approach to the early profession. And there are some errors in the book: for example, the author describes the current Chancellor of the College, Dennis Marchiori, as Chancellor of the Board of Trustees, and states that Palmer College is managed by several vice-chancellors overseen by the Board. In fact, this is not how the college operates; there are campus presidents at the branch campus and a provost overseeing all three campuses, led by the Chancellor and CEO of the college. And I wonder at statements claiming that chiropractors form a sizable contingent of the tea party and of other fringe reactionary movements. I have seen no such data to support such a statement. The statements attempting to tie chiropractic to hate groups seem overwrought — that perhaps some in the profession may be in such groups says nothing at all about the profession at large. Nonetheless, this is provocative and interesting, though it relies perhaps too much on the work of certain chiropractic critics. Happily, it also is based on the work of the late Joe Keating, who spent prodigious energy looking at issues such as these.

Doody's Review Service