‘Mark Harrison’s book illuminates the threats posed by
infectious diseases since 1500. He places these diseases within an
international perspective, and demonstrates the relationship
between European expansion and changing epidemiological patterns.
The book is a significant introduction to a fascinating
subject.’ Gerald N. Grob, Rutgers State University
In this lively and accessible book, Mark Harrison charts the
history of disease from the birth of the modern world around 1500
through to the present day. He explores how the rise of modern
nation-states was closely linked to the threat posed by disease,
and particularly infectious, epidemic diseases. He examines the
ways in which disease and its treatment and prevention, changed
over the centuries, under the impact of the Renaissance and the
Enlightenment, and with the advent of scientific medicine.
For the first time, the author integrates the history of disease
in the West with a broader analysis of the rise of the modern
world, as it was transformed by commerce, slavery, and colonial
rule. Disease played a vital role in this process, easing European
domination in some areas, limiting it in others. Harrison goes on
to show how a new environment was produced in which poverty and
education rather than geography became the main factors in the
distribution of disease.
Assuming no prior knowledge of the history of disease,
Disease and the Modern World provides an invaluable
introduction to one of the richest and most important areas of
history. It will be essential reading for all undergraduates and
postgraduates taking courses in the history of disease and
medicine, and for anyone interested in how disease has shaped, and
has been shaped by, the modern world.
Inhoudsopgave
Preface.
Introduction – Disease and Modernity.
Chapter 1 – Disease and Medicine before 1500.
Chapter 2 – Early Modern Europe.
Chapter 3 – Disease and Social Order: The Enlightenment and its
Legacy.
Chapter 4 – The World Beyond Europe.
Chapter 5 – Disease in an Age of Commerce and
Industry.
Chapter 6 – The Individual and the State.
Chapter 7 – Disease, War and Modernity.
Chapter 8 – Health for All: Affluence, Poverty and Disease
Since 1945.
Glossary
Over de auteur
Mark Harrison is Director of the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine and Reader in the History of Medicine, University of Oxford, and Fellow of Green College, Oxford.