Jonathan has been appointed Assistant Professor of History at James Madison University.
Jonathan Jones
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History, Binghamton University
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Research Fellow
“A Mind Prostrate”: Physicians, Opiates, and Insanity in the Civil War’s Aftermath
My dissertation utilizes Civil War-era physicians’ papers, medical records, and medical journals to investigate physicians’ responses to the opiate addiction epidemic that afflicted Civil War veterans in the United States during the 1860s, 1870s, and 1880s. By analyzing physicians’ understandings of the mechanics and meanings of opiate addiction, this study is poised to yield new evidence that speaks to debates over the Civil War's impact on mental health and gender that are currently roiling the historiography of the Civil War era. This study also contextualizes the opioid epidemic affecting the U.S. today by juxtaposing it against the causes of and responses to the post-Civil War opiate epidemic.
Read more about Jonathan's work here.
Updates
Jonathan Jones
Jonathan Jones
Jonathan Jones’ article “Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and Opiate Addiction” will be published in the The Journal of the Civil War Era 10, no. 2 (June 2020). He has been appointed as the inaugural Civil War Era Post-Doctoral Scholar at the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center, The Pennsylvania State University for 2020-2021. Finally he has accepted a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the Department of History, Virginia Military Institute, beginning in August 2021.
Jonathan Jones
Jonathan has two forthcoming publications: "Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and Opiate Addiction" in The Journal of the Civil War Era and "Buying and Selling Masculinity: Civil War Veterans and Opiate Addiction Patent Cures" in Caroline E. Janney and James Marten, eds., Buying and Selling the Civil War.
Jonathan Jones
Jonathan has recently published “Then and Now: How Civil War-Era Doctors Responded to Their Own Opiate Epidemic,” The Civil War Monitor, November 3, 2017, and was interviewed for a segment on NPR’s Boston affiliate WBUR: “As The Opium Trade Boomed In The 1800s, Boston Doctors Raised Addiction Concerns,” by Martha Bebinger, CommonHealth, August 1, 2017.
Jonathan Jones
published "The 'Right' and 'Wrong' Kind of Addict: Iatrogenic Opioid Addiction in Historical Context," Nursing Clio, July 25, 2017. He has also received fellowships from the Huntington Library and Binghamton University.