Promotional Information

Humphreys, trained both as a physician and a historian, is uniquely qualified to tell the story of malaria in the United States. She uses her medical knowledge and her understanding of the social history of the United States, particularly of the South, to reveal malaria's previously unexplored American career. It is a story containing some unexpected twists that Humphreys reveals with thoughtfulness, elegance, and wit. She allows readers to see malaria's history from the various perspectives of physicians, patients, communities, and public health workers. -- Todd L. Savitt, Ph.D., Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University Margaret Humphrey's eminently readable and convincing history of malaria in the United States follows in the tradition of Erwin H. Ackerknecht's classic study, completing the story that work began by describing malaria's last stand in the southeastern United States and by carefully analyzing the factors which let to its final demise. More than an exercise in historical epidemiology, this book offers fascinating insights into scientific and popular ideas concerning disease and healing. -- Randall M. Packard, Department of History, Emory University

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Pestilence That Stalks in Darkness
Chapter 2. The Mist Rises: Malaria in the Nineteenth Century
Chapter 3. Race, Poverty, and Place
Chapter 4. Making Malaria Control Profitable
Chapter 5. "A Ditch in Time Saves Quinine?"
Chapter 6. Popular Perceptions of Health, Disease, and Malaria
Chapter 7. Denouement
Notes
Notes on Sources
Index

About the Author

Margaret Humphreys received her Ph.D. degree from Harvard University in the history of science, followed by the M.D. degree in 1987 from Harvard Medical School. After residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, she practiced medicine for another three years in Quincy and Braintree, MA. In 1993 she moved to Duke University in Durham, NC, where she practices medicine and teaches in the Department of History. She also edits the Journal of the History of Medicine and is the author of the book Yellow Fever and the South .

Reviews

This is a fresh (and plausible) explanation for the disappearance of another southern germ of laziness, and it is presented in a study that does a fine job of packaging its findings within a richly documented historical context. -- Kenneth F. Kiple Journal of Southern History Margaret Humphrey's monograph on malaria in America has a strong storyline and a well-articulated thesis. It combines modern knowledge of malaria transmission and the genetic basis of resistance with a sound appreciation of the social, geographical and cultural nuances of the disease in American history. -- W.F. Bynum Times Literary Supplement A fascinating story of the spread of malaria through the USA following its introduction in the 17th century, through its greatest geographical coverage in the 19th century. -- Allan Saul Nature Medicine The main purpose of this book is to carry out an in-depth dialogue on the mystery of malaria and its existence in some parts of the world and disappearance in another based on the historical facts... The insight that [this] history provides has enormous value for global health. Doody's Health Sciences Review [ Malaria] is a masterpiece and is recommended reading for anyone involved in or interested in health care. -- Ronald C.HamdyMDFRCPFACP Southern Medical Journal A complex and fascinating story of the social history of malaria. -- Elizabeth Fee American Historical Review Gracefully written, perceptive, and well-documented, it will make historians of medicine, public health, and the social history of the American South grateful for her efforts. Medical History The lack of jargon makes the book accessible to a wide audience. -- Leo B. Slater, PhD Journal of the History of Medicine Accessible to a wide audience. A great breadth and depth of research underpins each chapter. -- Leo B. Slater Journal of the History of Medicine