The burdens of disease : epidemics and human response in western history / J.N. Hays.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hays, J. N., 1938-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Epidemics--History.

Epidemics.

Epidemics--Social aspects.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (391 p.)

Edition:

Rev. ed.

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, NJ : Rutgers University Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

A review of the original edition of The Burdens of Disease that appeared in ISIS stated, "Hays has written a remarkable book. He too has a message: That epidemics are primarily dependent on poverty and that the West has consistently refused to accept this." This revised edition confirms the book's timely value and provides a sweeping approach to the history of disease. In this updated volume, with revisions and additions to the original content, including the evolution of drug-resistant diseases and expanded coverage of HIV/AIDS, along with recent data on mortality figures and other relevant statistics, J. N. Hays chronicles perceptions and responses to plague and pestilence over two thousand years of western history. Disease is framed as a multidimensional construct, situated at the intersection of history, politics, culture, and medicine, and rooted in mentalities and social relations as much as in biological conditions of pathology. This revised edition of The Burdens of Disease also studies the victims of epidemics, paying close attention to the relationships among poverty, power, and disease.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Tables

Acknowledgments

Introduction

One. The Western Inheritance

Two. Medieval Diseases and Responses

Three. The Great Plague Pandemic

Four. New Diseases and Transatlantic Exchanges

Five. Continuity and Change

Six. Disease and the Enlightenment

Seven. Cholera and Sanitation

Eight. Tuberculosis and Poverty

Nine. Disease, Medicine, and Western Imperialism

Ten. The Scientific View of Disease and the Triumph of Professional Medicine

Eleven. The Apparent End of Epidemics

Twelve. Disease and Power

Notes

Suggestions for Further Reading

Index

About the Author

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786613588739

9781280493508

128049350X

9780813548173

0813548179

OCLC:

593295656