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Epidemics and History: Disease, Power, and Imperialism

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Disease's profound influence on society's fabric.

If you're fascinated by the interplay between disease and historical narratives, "Epidemics and History" is a compelling read. Sheldon J. Watts masterfully charts the course of epidemics through time, offering insights into how illness has not only molded human lives but also the tides of empires and economies. It's a thoughtful exploration for anyone interested in the broader implications of health on the past and present.

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Epidemics and History: Disease, Power, and Imperialism

Regular price $12.90 $11.90 8% off
Unit price
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ISBN: 9780300070156
Authors: Sheldon Watts
Date of Publication: 1997-12-22
Format: Hardcover
Goodreads rating: 3.44
(rated by 81 readers)

Description

A wide-ranging study of the great epidemic scourges of humanity - plague, leprosy, smallpox, syphilis, cholera, and yellow fever/malaria - over the last six centuries. Sheldon Watts applies his perspective to the study of global disease, exploring the connections between the movement of epidemics and the manifestations of imperial power in the Americas, Asia, Africa, and in European homelands. He shows how the perceptions of whom a disease targeted changed over time and affected various political and medical responses. Watts argues that not only did Western medicine fail to cure the diseases that its own expansion engendered, but that imperial medicine was, in fact, an agent and tool of empire. The book examines the relationship between the pre-modern medical profession and epidemic disasters such as the plague in Western Europe and the Middle East; leprosy in the medieval West and in the 19th-century tropical world; the spread of smallpox to the New World in the age of exploration; syphilis and nonsexual diseases in Europe's connection with Asia; cholera in India during British rule; and malaria in the Atlantic basin during the eras of slavery and social Darwinism. Watts investigates in detail the relation between violent environmental changes and disease, and between disease and society, both in the material sphere and in the minds and spirit of rulers and those who were ruled. This book is an
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Disease's profound influence on society's fabric.

If you're fascinated by the interplay between disease and historical narratives, "Epidemics and History" is a compelling read. Sheldon J. Watts masterfully charts the course of epidemics through time, offering insights into how illness has not only molded human lives but also the tides of empires and economies. It's a thoughtful exploration for anyone interested in the broader implications of health on the past and present.