John S. Haller, Jr.
Emeritus Professor
Email: jhaller@siu.edu
Dr. John S. Haller, Jr., received his baccalaureate degree from Georgetown University (1962), his master’s from John Carroll University (1964), and his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland (1968). Before joining SIUC in 1990, he was affiliated with Indiana University, California State University-Long Beach, and the University of Colorado. A professor of history and medical humanities, and former editor of Caduceus: A Humanities Journal for Medicine and the Health Sciences, Dr. Haller’s teaching portfolio included courses in American intellectual history, Darwin and the Darwinian world, leadership and moral responsibility, and the history of medicine.
He is the author of Outcasts From Evolution: Scientific Attitudes of Racial Inferiority, 1859-1900 (1971; 1975; 1995); The Physician and Sexuality in Victorian America (1974; 1977; 1995) with Robin Haller; American Medicine in Transition, 1830-1910 (1980); Battlefield Medicine: A History of the Military Ambulance from the Napoleonic Wars Through World War I (1993; 2011); Medical Protestants: The Eclectics in American Medicine, 1825-1939 (1994; 2012); Kindly Medicine: Physio-Medicalism in America, 1836-1911 (1997); The Making of a Medical Practice: An Illinois Case Study, 1885-1938 (1997) with Barbara Mason; A Profile in Alternative Medicine: The Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, 1845-1942 (1999); The People's Doctors: Samuel Thomson and the American Botanical Movement, 1790-1860 (2000); The History of American Homeopathy: The Academic Years, 1820-1935 (2005); The History of American Homeopathy: From Rational Medicine to Holistic Health Care (2009; 2012); Samuel Thomson and the Poetry of Botanical Medicine, 1810-1860 (2009); Swedenborg, Mesmer and the Mind/Body Connection: The Roots of Complementary Medicine (2010); Sectarian Reformers in American Medicine, 1800-1910 (2011); Joseph Rodes Buchanan: Architect of the Spirit-World, 1814-1899 (2011); The History of New Thought: From Mind Cure to Positive Thinking and the Prosperity Gospel (2012); Shadow Medicine: The Placebo in Conventional and Complementary Therapies (2014); Distant Voices: Sketches of a Swedenborgian World-View (2015); Man and His Muse: The Swedenborgian World of Rev. Frank Sewall (2019); Swedenborg’ Doctrine of Uses: Reform Thought from the Enlightenment to American Pragmatism (forthcoming 2020); The Quest for Certitude: The Nineteenth Century Search for a New Basis of Belief (forthcoming 2020); and more than seventy refereed articles.
He is also the author of three data sets on reform medical colleges, societies, and journals; and a data base compiling a century of student matriculation records for the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati available on the website of the Lloyd Library and Museum. His current research interests lie in the areas of medical theory and alternative medical systems. Before retiring, Dr. Haller served for twenty years as vice president for academic affairs for the Southern Illinois University System.