Institute for Research in the Humanities

Lucas Richert

Position title: UW–Madison resident fellow (2024-2025)

Address:
Professor and George Urdang Chair in Pharmacy History, Social and Administrative Sciences Division, School of Pharmacy, UW–Madison

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Chain Reaction: The Rise of Big Pharmacy, Corporate Health, and American Capitalism

Pharmacists and pharmacies are intimately related to health and commerce. Both drug stores and pharmacies serve as the endpoint of the American pharmaceutical supply chain. They are also the dispensers of a wide-ranging set of consumer goods, some nonthreatening and others harmful to public health. “Chain Reaction” excavates in depth the role of American consumerism, corporatism, and cultures of health in modern America through the lens of the evolving pharmacy in the 20th century. Whether a big box pharmacy or the small-town drugstore, such businesses have served as civic and community landmarks as well as sites of medical knowledge exchange. This project will examine the rise and consolidation of big pharmacy and what it has meant for health and medicine in the United States.

Lucas Richert is a historian of medicine and pharmacy, who focuses on legal and illegal drugs, drug science and technology, alternative therapies, and mental health.