The conquest of malaria : Italy, 1900-1962 / Frank M. Snowden.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Snowden, Frank M. (Frank Martin), 1946-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Malaria--Italy--History--20th century.

Malaria.

Malaria--Treatment--Italy--History--20th century.

Mosquitoes--Control--Italy--History--20th century.

Mosquitoes.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 online resource (viii, 296 p.) ) ill., map.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, c2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

At the outset of the twentieth century, malaria was Italy's major public health problem. It was the cause of low productivity, poverty, and economic backwardness, while it also stunted literacy, limited political participation, and undermined the army. In this book Frank Snowden recounts how Italy became the world center for the development of malariology as a medical discipline and launched the first national campaign to eradicate the disease. Snowden traces the early advances, the setbacks of world wars and Fascist dictatorship, and the final victory against malaria after World War II. He shows how the medical and teaching professions helped educate people in their own self-defense and in the process expanded trade unionism, women's consciousness, and civil liberties. He also discusses the antimalarial effort under Mussolini's regime and reveals the shocking details of the German army's intentional release of malaria among Italian civilians-the first and only known example of bioterror in twentieth-century Europe. Comprehensive and enlightening, this history offers important lessons for today's global malaria emergency.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Malaria: The "Italian National Disease"

2. From Miasma to Mosquito: The Rome School of Malariology

3. A Nation Mobilizes

4. From Quinine to Women's Rights: Hopes, Illusions, and Victories

5. The First World War and Epidemic Disease

6. Fascism, Racism, and Littoria

7. Creating Disaster: Nazism and Bioterror in the Pontine Marshes

8. Fighting Disaster: DDT and Old Weapons

Conclusion

Notes

Glossary

Select Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 225-286) and index.

ISBN:

9786611721558

9781281721556

1281721557

9780300128437

0300128436

OCLC:

1013948445