List of Tables ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
One: The Western Inheritance: Greek and Roman Ideas about Disease
9
Two: Medieval Diseases and Responses 19
Three: The Great Plague Pandemic 37
Four: New Diseases and Transatlantic Exchanges 62
Five: Continuity and Change: Magic, Religion, Medicine, and
Science, 500–1700 77
Six: Disease and the Enlightenment 105
Seven: Cholera and Sanitation 135
Eight: Tuberculosis and Poverty 155
Nine: Disease, Medicine, and Western Imperialism 179
Ten: The Scientific View of Disease and the Triumph of Professional
Medicine 214
Eleven: The Apparent End of Epidemics 243
Twelve: Disease and Power 283
Notes 315
Suggestions for Further Reading 341
Index 357
J. N. HAYS is a professor emeritus of history at Loyola University of Chicago.
"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. Hays's book should be in every
undergraduate library and be recommended reading, as a whole or in
part, in a wide range of history of medicine courses."
*Isis*
"Required reading for any university-level course on the social
history of disease and, indeed, of medicine generally. A masterly
and reliable synthesis."
*American Historical Review*
"This is an impressive piece of work. It delivers more than it
promises, for it not only treats epidemics and Western responses to
them, but also discusses conflicting ideas about disease in
relation to such topics as population, tuberculosis, technology,
and empire—and all in a lucid, even-handed, and generous way. A
fine and focused overview of a significant range of topics in the
history of medicine."
*Indiana University*
"In The Burdens of Disease J. N. Hays has synthesized a very large
literature dealing with the history of medicine and disease. The
result is an original and impressive book that deserves a wide
readership. It provides a fascinating perspective on contemporary
health issues."
*Institute for Health Policy, Rutgers University*
"An impressive text. Hays has presented us with a well-researched
and insightful thesis, which deserves a wide readership not only
among the microbiologically inclined, but also among all those
concerned with the impact of microbial disease on public
policy."
*Bulletin of the Royal College of Pathologists*
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