Epidemic diseases have always been a test of the ability of human societies to withstand sudden shocks. How are such large mortalities and the illness of large proportions of the population to be explained and dealt with? How have the sources of disease been identified and controls imposed? The chapters in this book, by acknowledged experts in the history of their periods, look at the ways in which the great epidemic diseases of the past--from classical Athens to the present day--have shaped not only our views of medicine and disease, but the ways in which people have defined the "health" of society in general terms.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"The high scholarly quality of the essays is sustained throughout the book...This book will be of interest not only to the medical profession, but to sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, and statesmen." The New England Journal of Medicine
"Like history itself, this book does not contain any simple answers. But it will provoke creative reflection, and the world needs all the insight it can muster." New Scientist
"There are 11 excellent essays in this volume, which collectively and individually illustrate that epidemics cause no necessary or particular cluster of human responses....The contents of this book deserve exhaustive review, for in every essay the results of these case studies confound commonplace assumptions about the history of epidemics...a dynamic, state-of-the-art collection, containing much of the best current research in the social history of epidemics." American Scientist
"...a remarkably cohesive and delightfully variegated book that brings medical and biological history into firm and fruitful contact with intellectual and social history....This is, in short, a splendid book--subtle, informed, sophisticated and coherent. It shows how successfully the social history of epidemics has come of age in recent years." William H. McNeill, Journal of Social History
"...will be of great interest to those concerned with the historical context of and societal response to diseases, such as AIDS, Legionnaire's disease, hantavirus, etc." Michael Zimmermann, Chronic Hepatitis: Morphology and Nomenclature
"Like history itself, this book does not contain any simple answers. But it will provoke creative reflection, and the world needs all the insight it can muster." New Scientist
"There are 11 excellent essays in this volume, which collectively and individually illustrate that epidemics cause no necessary or particular cluster of human responses....The contents of this book deserve exhaustive review, for in every essay the results of these case studies confound commonplace assumptions about the history of epidemics...a dynamic, state-of-the-art collection, containing much of the best current research in the social history of epidemics." American Scientist
"...a remarkably cohesive and delightfully variegated book that brings medical and biological history into firm and fruitful contact with intellectual and social history....This is, in short, a splendid book--subtle, informed, sophisticated and coherent. It shows how successfully the social history of epidemics has come of age in recent years." William H. McNeill, Journal of Social History
"...will be of great interest to those concerned with the historical context of and societal response to diseases, such as AIDS, Legionnaire's disease, hantavirus, etc." Michael Zimmermann, Chronic Hepatitis: Morphology and Nomenclature
Book Description
The chapters in this book look at the ways in which the great epidemic diseases of the past--from classical Athens to the present day--have shaped not only our views of medicine and disease, but the ways in which people have defined the "health" of society in general terms.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Scary diseases, dense read,
This review is from: Epidemics and Ideas: Essays on the Historical Perception of Pestilence (Past and Present Publications) (Paperback)
Ranger and Slack's book has a lot of interesting material, but most people will be put off by the writing. It is written by academics for academics and is not as readable as, say, Kolata's Flu. The articles are not concerned with what causes epidemics or how they are treated.The reactions of people to really scary diseases is the theme. Whether they are ancient Athenians reacting to plague or us modern folks learning about AIDS, people seem to react to epidemics in the same ways: they try to find human scapegoats to blame for the outbreak and those who can try to leave the area where the disease has broken out. The novelty and physical loathsomeness of the disease also have a lot to do with what people do. Some of these articles are more readable than others; the best are on Hawaiian depopulation, epidemics in the Dark Ages, and the Athenian plague. Probably a book only for specialists or very serious nonspecialists.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, but...,
By
This review is from: Epidemics and Ideas: Essays on the Historical Perception of Pestilence (Past and Present Publications) (Paperback)
While informative, some of the essays in this volume are marred by bad writing and muddled jargon that obscures rather than clarifies the issue. That it's intended for a specialist audience is no excuse: clarity is important to everyone...
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
In an article on 'Cholera and Society in the Nineteenth Century', published in Past and Present in 1961, Asa Briggs issued a 'call for further research' into the social history of epidemics. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
plague measures, plague administration, transmitted syphilis, endemic syphilis, prophetic response, heterosexual spread, military cordons, decomposing matter, fever hospital, venereal syphilis, medical police Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Black Death, Southwood Smith, The Bombay Plague, Medical Officer, Middle Ages, United States, Sandwich Islands, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Gregory of Tours, Uganda Protectorate, Department of Health, South Africa, Conquest of Plague, Hawaiian Islands, Plague Year, Poor Law, British Medical Journal, Poona Plague Committee, Albert Cook, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Captain Cook, East African, Executive Health Officer, Les Hommes New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
In an article on 'Cholera and Society in the Nineteenth Century', published in Past and Present in 1961, Asa Briggs issued a 'call for further research' into the social history of epidemics. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
plague measures, plague administration, transmitted syphilis, endemic syphilis, prophetic response, heterosexual spread, military cordons, decomposing matter, fever hospital, venereal syphilis, medical police Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Black Death, Southwood Smith, The Bombay Plague, Medical Officer, Middle Ages, United States, Sandwich Islands, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Gregory of Tours, Uganda Protectorate, Department of Health, South Africa, Conquest of Plague, Hawaiian Islands, Plague Year, Poor Law, British Medical Journal, Poona Plague Committee, Albert Cook, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Captain Cook, East African, Executive Health Officer, Les Hommes New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
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100
books
cite this book:
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- AIDS and Contemporary History (Cambridge Studies in the History of Medicine) by Virginia Berridge on page 303, and page 318
- The Impact of Plague in Tudor and Stuart England (Clarendon Paperbacks) by Paul Slack in Front Matter, and page 105
- Seventeenth Century by Paul Noble on page 105, and Back Matter
- The Invention of Tradition (Canto) by Eric Hobsbawm in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- The Missionary Censuses of Hawaii (Pacific Anthropological Records, No 20) by Robert C. Schmitt on page 186, and page 188
See all 100 books this book cites
- A 21st Century of Maximum Civilization or Chaotic-anarchy and Epidemics by Angeliki Burriel on 5 pages
- Disease and the Modern World: 1500 to the Present Day (Themes in History) by Mark Harrison on 5 pages
- Disease and the Modern World: 1500 to the Present Day (Themes in History) by Mark Harrison on 5 pages
- Global Health Governance: International Law and Public Health in a Divided World by Obijiofor Aginam on 4 pages
- Dis-ease in the Colonial State: Medicine, Society, and Social Change Among the AbaNyole of Western Kenya by Osaak Olumwullah on page 157, page 200, and Back Matter
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