Epidemics: Hate and Compassion from the Plague of Athens to AIDS

by Samuel K. Cohn, Jr.

Overview

By investigating thousands of descriptions of epidemics reaching back before the fifth-century-BCE Plague of Athens to the distrust and violence that erupted with Ebola in 2014, Epidemics challenges a dominant hypothesis in the study of epidemics, that invariably across time and space, epidemics provoked hatred, blaming of the 'other', and victimizing bearers of epidemic diseases, particularly when diseases were mysterious, without known cures or preventive measures, as with AIDS during the last two decades of the twentieth century. However, scholars and public intellectuals, especially post-AIDS, have missed a fundamental aspect of the history of epidemics. Instead of sparking hatred and blame, this study traces epidemics' socio-psychological consequences across time and discovers a radically different picture: that epidemic diseases have more often unified societies across class, race, ethnicity, and religion, spurring self-sacrifice and compassion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780192551597
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	03/30/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	656
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Samuel K. Cohn, Jr. is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Glasgow, an Honorary Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities at the University of Edinburgh, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Over the past sixteen years, he has focused on the history of popular unrest in late medieval and early modern Europe and on the history of disease and medicine. Cohn's latest two books are Popular Protest in Late Medieval English Towns (2013) and Cultures of Plague: Medical Thinking at the End of the Renaissance (OUP, 2010).

Table of Contents

Introduction: Hate, Politics, and Compassion
Part One: Antiquity and the Middle Ages
1. Epidemics in Antiquity: The Moral Universe and Natural Causes
2. Ancient Epidemics: What the Oracles Had To Say
3. Black Death Persecution and Abandonment
4. Mechanisms for Unity: Saints and Plagues
Part Two: Early Modernity
5. Syphilis: Naming and Blaming?
6. Plague Spreaders
Part Three: Modernity: Epidemics of Hate
7. Cholera's First European Tour: The Story in the British Isles
8. Cholera on the Continent and in America
9. Cholera Violence: An Italian Story in Comparative Perspective
10. Cholera: A Comparative History of Disturbance
11. Smallpox Cruelty: The Case of North America
12. Smallpox and Collective Violence
13. Smallpox Violence in Victorian Britain
Part IV: Modernity: Plagues of Politics
14. Plague since 1894: India
15. Plague Beyond India
16. Myths of Plague
Part V: Modernity: Plagues of Compassion
17. Yellow Fever: Stories from Philadelphia and Memphis
18. Yellow Fever: The Broader Picture
19. The Great Influenza: A Forgotten Pandemic?
20. Quarantine and Blame
21. A Pandemic of Compassion
22. Comparative Vistas (I): The Great Influenza
23. Comparative Vistas (II): Beyond the Battlefields
24. Conclusion
25. Epilogue. HIV/AIDS: An Epidemic of Hate, Compassion, and Politics
Bibliography and Appendix of Newspapers

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Alain Touwaide, PhD (Ronin Institute)
Description: Epidemics have most probably plagued humans since the very beginning of humankind. Apart from the Biblical plagues (about which we do not know whether they were medical epidemics or metaphorical narratives with a moral meaning), the first medical epidemics recounted in writing is the so-called Plague of Athens in the years 430-429 and 427 BCE. Starting from there, the book covers the history of human epidemics, not so much as just medical phenomena, but as phenomena that, though medical, were most important for the particular interpretations they were invested with. Through the history of epidemics, we go from unpredictable natural facts to AIDS and the transformation of medicine and human reaction to major medical phenomena that it provoked.
Purpose: As the author puts it, this a book about hate, the hate that major epidemics crystallized (and still crystallize), generating the hunt for scapegoats and justifying massacres of minorities. It is not only about the medical history of epidemics, but also about the impact of epidemics on humans' reactions. It is a massive study (over 600 pages) that examines all major documented epidemics in order to understand their psychological mechanisms on both individuals and society.
Audience: This is an extremely dense, reflexive work of a seasoned historian that will be read with delight by professional historians, particularly historians of medicine interested in social history. Of course, it could be of interest to nonprofessional readers, too. It will require assiduity and the willingness to study it.
Features: The whole history of epidemics is divided into five major phases, each of which is characterized by a collective behavior. It starts from Antiquity and the search for natural causes, shifts to the Middle Ages and the Black Death, marked by the opposite phenomena of persecution and, at the same time, development of the cult of saint-healers. Modernity was first plagued by syphilis and the first attempts to understand it. Further on, epidemics of cholera and smallpox saw the spread of violence, even though a real medical solution was developed for the treatment of smallpox with Jenner. In the most recent centuries, the debate moved from population to politics, including particularly, in the epidemic of HIV/AIDS.
Assessment: This is a monumental fresco, not so much of the medical facts of epidemics (even though these are present), but rather of humankind trying to cope with epidemics, revealing, most often, the least admirable aspects of humankind. This fresco is painted with a small brush, not with large swaths. It is a deeply analytical presentation, proceeding with a firm hand to draw clear facts and mount them with great precision, resulting in an image probably difficult to look at.

Doody's Review Service

"...It is a lens that has once again become relevantto current events, and Cohn's book may well serve as a useful resourcefor other researchers who are taking a renewed interest in epidemics." — Kristy Wilson Bowers, Assistant Professor; Department of History, College of Arts and Science,University of Missouri, USA

"Epidemics, conceived in the influenza scare of 2009, is in itself a commemoration of all the deadliest plagues to have afflicted our species. ... covering the major infections from 430 BC, through the Black Death (1347-51) and syphilis (1494-5), to cholera (1832 onwards), smallpox in nineteenth-century America, plague in India since 1894, yellow fever (Southern USA), and the Great Influenza, with a coda on HIV/AIDS ... Cohn's aim is not just to tell their stories (although there are stories aplenty), but to tell them from a new persspective." — Anne Hardy, Times Literary Supplement

"...this is a work of considerable value. Thanks to Cohn, subsequent generations of historians may be inclined to study epidemics as a potential unifying force rather than merely a destructive one." — Mark Harrison, Journal of Modern History

"In a number of distinct contexts, Cohn uncovers responses of sympathy and mutual assistance crossing class, religious, gender or ethnic divides. These take very different forms - some grassroots movements and some organized centrally. Here, as in all other parts of the discussion, Cohn establishes that responses to epidemics are complicated by the specific nature of the disease as well as the context in which it develops. The mentalities, memories and manifestations of each varied. By reintroducing a number of complexities and ambiguities into the study of epidemic disease, Cohn illustrates the richness of the comparative history of disease, and his work will likely act as a point of reference and inspiration for many years to come." — Jane Stevens Cranshaw, Oxford Brookes University, European History Quarterly

"The historical breadth of this book, with its meticulous attention to varied sources and contexts, is simply breathtaking. ... This book will interest students of the history of medicine as well as anyone seeking a historical and comparative exploration of epidemics. It is dense and detailed reading ... this book will appeal chiefly to specialists at the graduate level and above." — CHOICE

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