Death in Hamburg: Society and Politics in the Cholera Years, 1830-1910 (Paperback)

by Richard Evans (Author) "THE German Empire founded by Bismarck in 1871 has sometimes been described as a 'federation of monarchs', but strictly speaking it was not..." (more)
Key Phrases: cholera morbidity, harbour strike, cholera mortality rate, Social Democrats, Social Democratic, Alley Quarters (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
A brilliantly written work of great analytical penetration. -- Gordon A. Craig, The New York Review of Books

A marvelous book, splendidly written, full of wit and anecdote, exuding scholarship and wisdom. -- New Scientist

A tremendous book, the biography of a city which charts the multifarious pathways from bacilli to burgomaster. -- Roy Porter, London Review of Books

Product Description
Why were nearly 10,000 people killed in six weeks in Hamburg, while most of Europe was left almost unscathed? As Richard J. Evans explains, it was largely because the town was a "free city" within Germany that was governed by the "English" ideals of laissez- faire. The absence of an effective public-health policy combined with ill-founded medical theories and the miserable living conditions of the poor to create a scene ripe for tragedy. The story of the "cholera years" is, in Richard Evans’s hands, tragically revealing of the age’s social inequalities and governmental pitilessness and incompetence; it also offers disquieting parallels with the world’s public-health landscape today.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 736 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (October 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 014303636X
• ISBN-13: 978-0143036364
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #812,969 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Social history at its best, July 16, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Death in Hamburg: Society and Politics in the Cholera Years 1830-1910 (Hardcover)

This book by an eminent social historian of Germany tells the story of the cholera epidemic in late nineteenth-century Hamburg. Using an excellent mixture of local politics, history of science, traditional political history, and demographics, Evans shows how the attempts of local politicians to resist pressure from Berlin during the years of unification led to thousands of deaths in Hamburg due to an outdated water system, while residents in bordering Altona were spared. The story shows the interaction of politics with the history of science and technology, as rival theories about cholera -- the environmental "miasmic" theory and the infectious disease theory advocated by Robert Koch in the Prussian ministry of health -- were debated. A state-of-the art work of historiography that's also a gripping read, written in the shadow of the AIDS epidemic. It's really too bad that the paperback went out of print