Borders and Sanitation from the Seventeenth to the Twenty-First Century

This book builds toward the emergence of ‘sanitary-border studies’, a field of inquiry focused on the role of managing epidemics on the development and transformation dynamics of borderlands and borders, and how this in turn shapes the development of moral boundaries and collective identities.

Integrating a diverse range of disciplines such as diplomatic history, the history of medicine, the history of art, consular and border studies, political science and international relations, these contributions investigate different aspects of the relations and interactions between addressing epidemic diseases and the processes of building the borders and boundaries that both separate and constitute political, cultural and linguistic communities. While primarily focused on the Mediterranean space from the 17th century onwards, the volume opens conceptual space which allows for studying the relationship between sanitary measures and border development much more broadly. In particular, it highlights the link between pandemic waves and the reinforcement of state borders and identity components as a historical and inherent constant of nation-state borders.

This book will be of interest to scholars and students interested in the history of medicine and sanitary measures as well as in the development of borders and modern national states.