Epidemics and Ideas: Essays on the Historical Perception of Pestilence

8vo, br. ed. IX, 346pp. Epidemic, ideas and classical Athenian society, James Longrigg -- Disease, dragons and saints: the management of epidemics in the Dark Ages, Peregrine Horden -- Epidemic disease in formal and popular thought in early Islamic society, Lawrence I. Conrad -- Plague and perceptions of the poor in early modern Italy, Brian Pullan -- Dearth, dirt and fever epidemics: rewriting the history of British 'publichealth', 1780-1850, John V. Pickstone -- Epidemics and revolutions: cholera in nineteenth-century Europe, Richard J. Evans -- Hawaiian depopulation as a model for the Amerindian experience, A. W. Crosby -- Plague panic and epidemic politics in India, 1896- 1914, Rajnarayan Chandavarkar -- Plagues of beasts and men; prophetic responses to epidemic in eastern and southern Africa, Terence Ranger -- Syphilis in colonial East and Central Africa: the social construction of an epidemic, Megan Vaughan -- The early years of AIDS in the United Kingdom 1981-6: historical perspectives, Virginia Berridge. Epidemic diseases have always been a test of the ability of human societies to withstand sudden shocks. How are such large mortalities and the illness of large proportions of the population to be explained and dealt with? How have the sources of disease been identified and controls imposed? The chapters in this book, by acknowledged experts in the history of their periods, look at the ways in which the great epidemic diseases of the past--from classical Athens to the present day--have shaped not only our views of medicine and disease, but the ways in which people have defined the "health" of society in general terms. Book Description: The chapters in this book look at the ways in which the great epidemic diseases of the past--from classical Athens to the present day--have shaped not only our views of medicine and disease, but the ways in which people have defined the "health" of society in general terms. ISBN 9780521558310