Epidemics and the Modern Age

Epidemics and the Modern Age focuses on the history of disease and its social significance in a global setting, from the Age of Revolutions to the Covid Pandemic, considering tuberculosis, cholera, the plague, “Spanish” Influenza, HIV/AIDS, and many more.

Blending a history of epidemics with a history of social and cultural responses to disease, the book shows how the spread of illness can be directly linked to the phenomena we sum up with the word “modernity”: the growth of the state, racial and economic inequality, the rise of globalization, urbanization, imperialism, and total war. The book highlights how epidemic outbreaks are moments during which preexisting divisions, cultural assumptions, and bureaucratic blind spots are glaringly magnified and exacerbated. Fear of disease has often been as consequential than disease itself—the experience of living through an epidemic is not reducible to scientific advances and bacteriological details. Through case studies, evocative anecdotes, and a broad research base, this textbook considers disease outbreaks not just from the perspectives of doctors and patients, but also the viewpoints of government workers, travelers, caregivers, and artists, through the lens of culture and critical analysis.

Epidemics and the Modern Age will be of interest to students of Global History, Cultural Studies, Medicine, and Public Policy Administration.