“Epidemics are not an unmixed evil. Indeed … they are productive of more good than harm.”
U.S. Surgeon General George Sternberg, 1885
Professor Shelley McKellar
Office: Lawson Hall room 2227
Email: [email protected]
Office Telephone: (519) 661-2111 ext. 84990
Office Hours: Tues 11:30 – 1:30 p.m. or by appointment
Seminar Meeting: Tues 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. Winter Term 2016
Course Website:
https://owl.uwo.ca
Course Description:
This graduate seminar explores the impact of disease outbreaks on human society. It focuses on
the social and political responses to disease, tracing changes and continuities in society’s efforts to
understand and control various diseases. How have different societies, at different times, responded to
disease outbreaks? What role have patients, medical practitioners, scientists, public health officials, the
state, the church, international health agencies, the pharmaceutical industry, or even entrepreneurs
played in response to specific disease outbreaks and medical challenges? Using a case study
approach, this course will examine outbreaks that range in time and place, from the plague and smallpox
to influenza and HIV-AIDS, among others. Questions relating to power, agency, class, race, gender and
sexuality shall most certainly be discussed.
This is a seminar and workshop-structured course. Seminar meetings shall concentrate on
student-directed discussions based on assigned readings (both articles and monographs), from which
students shall acquire content and critical inquiry into a specific topic. Workshops focus on student
development of research skills of ‘doing history,’ including asking good historical questions, analyzing
primary source materials, communicating findings in both oral and written formats, and encouraging
peer interchange and assessment. Students will have the opportunity to pursue their own interest in the
history of disease and epidemics for their major course paper.
Course Objectives:
By the end of this course, students will:
1. Appreciate the interaction between the conceptualization of and the response to disease
outbreaks in society;
2. Understand many of the key issues, historiography and methodologies in the history of
epidemic disease;
3. Work towards developing several life-long learning skills including:
•
effective question formulation;
• research skills;
•
critical thinking;
• communication (written & oral);
•
peer and self assessment.
1
Course Evaluation:
• Seminar Discussions and Workshops
30 %
• Comparative Book Review (1500-2000 words or roughly 6-8 pp)
20 %
• Final Research Paper (18-25 pp in length)
50 %
Seminar Meeting Schedule (see Seminar Reading List below – readings available on OWL course
page with exception of course texts – Johnson, Bynum, and Bourdelais)
Jan 5
Introduction
Jan 12
Plague
Jan 19
Smallpox
Jan 26
Cholera
Feb 2
Malaria and Yellow Fever
Feb 9
Workshop: Pre-circulated Preliminary Outline for Research Paper;
* Stephen Johnson, The Ghost Map (2006)
Peer Discussion and Feedback
Feb 16
Reading Week – No meeting
Feb 23
Tuberculosis * Helen Bynum, Spitting Blood (2012) * Review due
Mar 1
Influenza
Mar 8
Polio
Mar 15
HIV-AIDS
Mar 22
21st Century Outbreaks (SARS, Measles, Ebola) and the Role of History
Mar 29
Workshop: Pre-circulated Draft Research Paper; Peer Discussion and Feedback
Apr 5
Workshop: Pre-circulated Draft Research Paper; Peer Discussion and Feedback
Apr 12
* Final Research Paper due
Course Work Descriptions:
•
Seminar Discussions and Workshops
Seminar Discussions: We shall meet weekly as a seminar group to discuss assigned readings
towards gaining insight into some of the key issues, historiography and methodologies in the history
of epidemic disease. The assigned readings shall be a mix of monographs, articles and primary
sources. As much as possible, these readings shall be made available on OWL-Sakai. Students
are expected to come prepared to discuss the assigned readings in detail, and to bring their notes
to meetings.
Workshops: In this course there are two different workshops scheduled to assist in student
development of research skills of ‘doing history’ – including asking good historical questions,
analyzing primary source materials, communicating findings in both oral and written formats, and
encouraging peer interchange and assessment.
2
•
Comparative Book Review (1500-2000 words or roughly 6-8 pp)
This review should be comparative; that is, it needs to address issues of argument, sources,
writing style, and historiographical contribution of each book, as well as comparatively. After
reading these two books, how were the political, medical and social responses to cholera and
tuberculosis similar and/or different? Does one book do a better job of describing and analyzing
the impact of a disease? If so, how?
This is an analytical, reflective assignment that will be graded on your demonstration of close,
thoughtful reading of each book and well-written prose. Citations of these two books can be in
the form of parentheses (Bynum, p.35) or (Johnson, p.181) in the text of your review. Feel free to
bring in any issues discussed in class. This is not a research assignment, so no other sources
need to be consulted or cited.
•
Research Paper (18-25 pp)
This research paper provides you the opportunity to work through the skills of being a good
historian. That is, you are expected to formulate an effective historical question, locate resource
materials, evaluate evidence, apply critical analysis, synthesize your research findings, and
formulate conclusions. It is expected that students will undertake substantial research – including
primary source research – for this paper.
The topic of this research paper can be drawn from any disease outbreak or epidemic in global
history, from antiquity to the end of the 20th century. All topics should be approved by the professor.
Students are strongly advised to start thinking about the research paper immediately.
Library Resources - http://www.lib.uwo.ca/programs/historyofmedicine
Key to your research success for this paper is your ability to distinguish between a historical
account of your disease and a medical text describing the etiology, diagnosis and/or
treatment of your disease. Note: you will not be able to write a good history paper based
on science papers or newspaper articles only! So make sure you read historical sources
on your research topic. There is a portal for library resources in the history of medicine that
identifies relevant bibliographies, biographies, encyclopedias and databases pertaining to
the history of medicine at: http://www.lib.uwo.ca/programs/historyofmedicine.
Some bibliographical guides in the library that list good historical sources on various
diseases, scientists, and other events are:
Titles in The D.B. Weldon Library:
• DBW reference Q127.U6095 2014 (2 volumes) – also ONLINE via Western Libraries -Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of American Science, Medicine and Technology
• DBW reference D 205.O94 2008 (8 volumes) - Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern
World, 1750 to the Present
• DBW reference Q 125.R335 2000 - Reader’s Guide to the History of Science
• DBW reference Q 180.55.D57S29 2006 (3 volumes) - Science and Scientists
• DBW reference R 133.M34 1985 - Encyclopedia of Medical History
• DBW reference R 134.D57 2007 (5 volumes) - Dictionary of Medical Biography
Titles in Allyn & Betty Taylor Library:
• TAY reference Q 141.N45x 2008 (8 vols) - New Dictionary of Scientific Biography
3
• TAY reference WA 13.E564 2008 (2 vols) - Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics,
and Plagues
• TAY reference WC 13.I435 2008 (2 vols) - Infectious Diseases: In Context
Online resources (via shared library catalogue):
• Cambridge World History of Human Disease (2008) - Also available in DBW reference
R 131.C233 1993
• Encyclopedia of World Biography
• Epidemics and Pandemics: Their Impacts on Human History - Also available in
DBW reference RA 649.H293 2005
• Science and Its Times: Understanding the Social Significance of Scientific
Discovery
Some databases available online through Western library that will direct you to scholarly historical
articles in academic journals on your topic are:
• America: History and Life (Canadian and American History)
• Historical Abstracts (Non-North American History)
Preliminary Outline - Students will submit a one-page preliminary outline via email to all seminar
members before our February Workshop.
Please use identical format to the sample outline below:
Preliminary Outline for Star Student, #987654321
Topic:
The Influenza Pandemic of 1918
(What interests you?)
Research Question:
(What do you want to know?)
How and why did influenza spread around the world after the
First World War, and to what extent was Canada involved in the
spread of this pandemic?
Preliminary Bibliography:
(Where will you look to find answers?)
Secondary Sources:
- Alfred Crosby, America’s Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918 (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2003)
- Mark Osborne Humphries, “The Horror at Home: The Canadian Military and the
“Great” Influenza Pandemic of 1918,” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association,
16 (2005): 235-260.
Primary Sources:
- Hans Zinsser, The Etiology and Epidemiology of Influenza. [Baltimore?: s.n., 1922?].
- United States. Public Health Service. “Spanish Influenza,” “Three-Day Fever,” “the
Flu.” Washington, D.C.: G.P.O., 1918.
4
Your preliminary outline should include the following information:
•
Topic: choose a disease outbreak or topic, which we may or may not have discussed in
seminar; include place and time period
•
Research Question: or line of inquiry – what do you want to know? (the answer to your
research question will be your thesis statement, more or less)
•
Bibliography: – list of primary and secondary sources – where will you find the answers
to your line of inquiry?
Your outline will facilitate discussion which will help you to refine your research question, find appropriate
sources, and in past cases, students have directed fellow classmates to material which they have found!
This has always been a very useful exercise for students.
Primary Sources in the History of Medicine
•
ARCC, Weldon Library
- many archival records & rare books discussing disease outbreaks, for example –
Smallpox and
Vaccination
RM 787.G64
1948
Great Britain. Ministry of Health. Memorandum on
vaccination against smallpox (pamphlet)
(Consider: What was the debate?
What was their understanding of
the disease and/or epidemic
nature of it? What changes by
1948?)
WC588.E27v
1882
Edwards, Joseph F.
Vaccination: arguments pro and con, with a chapter
on the hygiene of smallpox (monograph)
Tuberculosis and the
Beck Memorial
Sanatorium, London,
Ontario
W1.BE106
1949-1951
W1.BE105
1949-1951
Beck San sun (published monthly)
AFC 6 – 3/2
The Institute of Public Health Fonds
AFC 6 Series 3 File 2
Camp Sanitary Officer Correspondence, 1918
Beck Memorial Sanatorium Annual Report
(Consider: What was the
sanatorium? What was the
patient experience? Was this
institution a “successful” response
to an epidemic?)
Public Health
(Consider: What health issues
were discussed among the
sanitation officers? How did they
propose to resolve these issues?
What does this tell us about the
military and their strategy to
control outbreaks/ epidemics?)
Outgoing (and some incoming) correspondence of
Dr Hibbert W. Hill in his capacity as Deputy Assistant
Director of Medical Services (D.A.D.M.S.), Camp
Sanitary Officer for Military District No.1, which was
based in London. This correspondence relates to
public health and sanitation inspections of military
facilities in the District.
5
•
Digitized Primary Sources available online (a select few listed below)
•
Medical Heritage Library https://archive.org/details/medicalheritagelibrary
•
London’s Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972 http://wellcomelibrary.org/moh/
•
Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics at Harvard University Library
http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion/
•
National Library of Medicine, History of Medicine Division http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/index.html
•
Osler Library at McGill University http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/oslerprints/index.php
Due Dates and Late Penalties:
Penalty for late essays is 2% each day (excluding Saturdays and Sundays) after the due date.
Essays must be handed to the instructor or submitted to the History Department on the 2nd floor
of Lawson Hall. Faxed and emailed essays are not acceptable. Extensions may be granted if
legitimate circumstances are presented by the student to the instructor well in advance of the due
date. Poor work planning (such as “I have XX other papers due”) is not grounds for an extension.
After 7 days (one week past the due date), the assignment will not be accepted without a properly
documented excuse. There will be no exceptions.
Statement on Academic Ethics and Academic Dishonesty:
Students are reminded that they should read and comply with the university’s position on academic
ethics and academic dishonesty. Plagiarism and submission of work that is not one’s own or for which
previous credit has been obtained are examples of academic dishonesty. Students must write their
essays and assignments in their own words. Whenever students take an idea, or a passage of text
from another author, they must acknowledge their debt both by using quotation marks where
appropriate and by proper referencing such as footnotes or citations. Plagiarism is a major academic
offence (see Scholastic Offence Policy in the Western Academic Calendar.)
6
Seminar Reading List
Course Texts (available in Western bookstore and in Weldon Library on 3-day reserve):
•
Steven Johnson, The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How It
Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World (New York: Penguin Books, 2006)
•
Helen Bynum, Spitting Blood: The History of Tuberculosis (New York: Oxford University Press,
2012)
•
Patrice Bourdelais, Epidemics Laid Low: A History of What Happened in Rich Countries
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006)
Other suggested books for background reading, if needed:
•
E.H. Ackerknecht, A Short History of Medicine (rev. ed 2016, 1982)
•
M. Harrison, Contagion: How Commerce Has Spread Disease (2013)
•
J. Aberth, Plagues in World History (2011)
•
T. Koch, Disease Maps: Epidemics On The Ground (2011)
•
J.N. Hays, Epidemics and pandemics: their impacts on human history (2005)
•
M. Harrison, Disease and the Modern World: 1500 to the present. (2004)
•
J.N. Hays The Burdens of Disease: Epidemics and Human Response in Western History (1998; 2009)
•
J. Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel (1997)
•
S. Watts, Epidemics and History: Disease, power and imperialism (1997)
•
R. Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: a medical history of humanity (1997)
•
J.Duffin, The History of Medicine: A Scandalously Short Introduction (2nd ed, 2010)
•
I. Loudon (ed.), Western Medicine: an Illustrated History (1997)
•
K. Kiple (ed.), The Cambridge world history of human disease (1993)
•
J.Bynum & R.Porter (ed) Companion Encyclopedia of the history of medicine (1993)
Date
Topic
Readings
Jan 5
Intro
Patrice Bordelais, “Introduction,” Epidemics Laid Low (2006,) pp. ix – 5
Charles E. Rosenberg, Explaining Epidemics and other studies in the history of
medicine (1992)
•
Chapter 13 “What is an epidemic?” pp. 278-292.
•
Chapter 14 “Explaining epidemics,” pp. 293-304.
7
Date
Topic
Readings
Jan 12
Plague
Patrice Bordelais, “The Plague Era,” Epidemics Laid Low (2006) – Chapt 1
Samuel K Cohn, Jr., “Pandemics: waves of disease, waves of hate from the
Plague of Athens to A.I.D.S.” Historical Research 85,230 (Nov 2012):535-55
Samuel K Cohn, Jr., “The Black Death: The End of a Paradigm,” The American
Historical Review Vol. 107, No. 3 (June 2002): 703-38
Shona Kelly Wray, "Boccaccio and the doctors: medicine and compassion in the
face of the plague," Journal of Medieval History Vol. 30 Issue 3, (Sept 2004):
301-22
David Steel, “Plague Writing: From Boccaccio to Camus,” Journal of European
Studies 11,2 (Jun1981): 88-110
Paul Slack, 'Responses to Plague in Early Modern Europe: The Implications of
Public Health' Social Research, 55, 3, (1988): 433-53
Patrick Wallis, “Plagues, Morality and the Place of Medicine in Early Modern
England,” The English Historical Review, 121, 490 (Feb., 2006): 1-24
Champion, Justin. “Epidemics and the Built Environment in 1665,” in:
Epidemic Disease in London Working paper series No. 1 (University of London
Centre for Metropolitan History, 1994), pp. 35-52.
Primary Source material:
(1) “The Special Challenges of Plague,” in Medieval Medicine: A Reader edited
by Faith Wallis (UTP,2010): 414-29.
• The Report of the Paris Medical Faculty, Oct 1348
• Guy of Chauliac on the Black Death from his book Great Surgery, c
1363
• John of Burgundy’s Treatise on the Epidemic, c 1365
(2) Boccaccio, The Decameron, Penguin Classic edition , First Day,
Introduction.
Available online at:
http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/texts/DecShowText.ph
p?myID=d01intro&expand=empty&lang=eng
(3) The Diary of Samuel Pepys
- extracts relating to the plague at: http://www.pepys.info/1665/plague.html
For full diary see: Braybrooke, Richard Lord, ed. The Diary of Samuel Pepys,
Esq., F.R.S., from 1659 to 1669: With Memoir. London: F. Warne, [1887?].
Available online at “The Great Plague of London, 1665,” Contagion: Historical
Views of Diseases and Epidemics at Harvard University Library
http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion/
Jan 19
Patrice Bordelais, “Vaccination and Smallpox,” Epidemics Laid Low (2006)
8
Date
Topic
Readings
Smallpox
– pages 39-45; 109-11
Anne Eriksen, “Cure or Protection? The meaning of smallpox inoculation, ca
1750-1775” Medical History 57,4 (Oct 2013): 516-536.
Michael Bennett, “Jenner's Ladies: Women and Vaccination against Smallpox in
Early Nineteenth-Century Britain,” History 93, 312 (Oct 2008): 497-513.
Diana Barnes, “The public life of a woman of wit and quality: Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu and the vogue for smallpox inoculation,” Feminist Studies 38,2
(Summer 2012): 330-62.
Nadja Durbach, ‘”They Might as Well Brand Us”: Working-Class Resistance to
Compulsory Vaccination in Victorian England’, Social History of Medicine, 13
(2000): 45-61.
Stuart Blume, “Anti-vaccination movements and their interpretations,” Social
Science & Medicine 62 (2006) 628–642.
Primary Source material:
(1) “Abigail Adams takes measures to immunize her children against smallpox”
– see John Adams HBO film YOUtube clip at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWxDLG9_eOU
(2) Instructions for vaccine inoculation : commonly called vaccination
(Philadephia, 1807) digitizes for The Medical Heritage Library at:
https://archive.org/details/2558034R.nlm.nih.gov
(3) Robert D. Hicks, “1879 Surgical Catalog: Mail-Order Smallpox Vaccine,” The
History of Vaccines Blog, July 27, 2010 at
http://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/blog/1879-surgical-catalog-mail-ordersmallpox-vaccine
(4) “The Cow Pock-or-the Wonderful Effects of the New Inoculation! Vide-the
Publications of ye Anti-Vaccine Society,” by James Gillray, published London:
H. Humphrey, June 12, 1802; digitized on Images from the History of Medicine
(NLM) Collection at:
http://ihm.nlm.nih.gov/luna/servlet/detail/NLMNLM~1~1~101395166~148594:Th
e-Cow-Pock-or-the-Wonderful-Effec
(5) Lisa Rosner, “What’s in a Name? Or, Will Vaccination Turn Your Children
into Cows?” The History of Vaccines Blog, March 30, 2012 at
http://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/blog/what%E2%80%99s-name-or-willvaccination-turn-your-children-cows
(6) PBS, “World Health Organization declares smallpox eradicated, 1980,” at
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/dm79sp.html
Jan 26
Steven Johnson, The Ghost Map (2006)
9
Date
Topic
Cholera
Readings
with online resources available at: http://www.theghostmap.com/
•
Snow’s cholera map from John Snow, On the Mode of Communication
of Cholera (1855) at http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/snowmap1_1854_lge.htm
Patrice Bordelais, “Cholera,” (Ch3) Epidemics Laid Low (2006) – pp 47-66.
Additional reading for discussion that address themes of two well-known images
related to cholera:
Howard Markel, "Knocking Out the Cholera:” Cholera, Class and Quarantines in
New York City, 1892,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 69, 3 (1995): 420-457.
•
“The Kind of “Assisted Emigrant” We Can Not Afford to Admit,” [image],
Puck (1883) -- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/typhoid/quar-05.html
- In this 1883 Puck drawing, members of the New York Board of Health are
wielding a bottle of carbolic acid, a disinfectant, in their attempts to keep cholera
at bay. Death is personified, on board the ship, carrying a scythe, with the word
“cholera” on belt scarf.
Projit Bihari Mukharji, “The “Cholera Cloud” in the Nineteenth-Century “British
World”: History of an Object-Without-an-Essence,” Bulletin of the History of
Medicine 86, 3 (2012): 303-332.
•
My selection from NLM digital exhibit (see below) – Cholera "Tramples
the victors & the vanquished both," [graphic] by Robert Seymour,
published in McLean’s monthly sheet of caricatures; October 1, 1831;
p.2 No. 22
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/cholera/images/a021774.jpg
Primary Source material:

NLM, “Cholera Online: A Modern Pandemic in Text and Images,”
[digital exhibit] – http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/cholera/images.html

Harvard University Library Open Collections, Contagion: Historical
Views of Diseases and Epidemics, “Cholera Epidemics in the 19th
Century,” [digital source] -http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion/cholera.html
Peruse the NLM digital exhibit and Harvard University Library Open Collections
listed above, and review the various images and text (noting repeating themes
and imagery). Choose an excerpt from any primary source materials – text or
image – and reflect upon its impact or meaning. Be prepared to discuss in
class, if called upon (will bring up website on classroom computer/projector)
Feb 2
Yellow
Michael Worboys, “Tropical Diseases,” in Companion Encyclopedia of the
10
Date
Topic
Readings
Fever and
Malaria
History of Medicine, eds. W.F. Bynum and Roy Porter (London: Routledge,
1993), excerpts - pp. 515-518; 524-27.
S. Watts, Epidemics and History: Disease, power and imperialism (1997) – Ch.6
“Yellow Fever, Malaria and Development: Atlantic Africa and the New World,
1647 to 1928,” pp.213-68.
S. Watts, “Yellow Fever Immunities in West Africa and the Americas in the Age
of Slavery and Beyond: A Reappraisal,” Journal of Social History 34, 4 (June
2001): 955-67.
• K.Kiple, Response to Sheldon Watts, "Yellow Fever Immunites in
West Africa and the Americas in the Age of Slavery and Beyond: A
Reappraisal" Journal of Social History 34, 4 (June 2001): 969-74.
•
S. Watts, Response to Kenneth Kiple, "Yellow Fever Immunites in
West Africa and the Americas in the Age of Slavery and Beyond: A
Reappraisal" Journal of Social History 34, 4 (June 2001): 975-6.
A yellow fever timeline which may be helpful at:
http://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/timelines/yellow-fever
Mary Ellen Condon-Rall, “Allied Cooperation in Malaria Prevention and Control:
The World War II Southwest Pacific Experience,” Journal of the History of
Medicine and Allied Sciences 46,4 (1991): 493-513.
Margaret Humphreys, “Kicking a Dying Dog: DDT and the Demise of Malaria in
the American South, 1942-1950,” Isis Vol. 87, No. 1 (Mar., 1996), pp. 1-17.
Randall M. Packard, “Malaria Dreams: Postwar Visions of Health and
Development in the Third World,” Medical Anthropology: Cross-Cultural Studies
in Health and Illness 17,3 (1997): 279-296.
Primary Source material:
(1) Carey, Matthew. A Short Account of the Malignant Fever, Lately Prevalent in
Philadelphia… Philadelphia: Printed by the Author, 1794.
http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/view/7374219
(2) Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, A Narrative of the Proceedings of the Black
People, During the Late Awful Calamity in Philadelphia in the Year 1793 and a
Refutation of Some Censures, Thrown upon them in some late Publications (1794)
http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/view/6483355
Note: In Mathew Carey's widely-read pamphlet - A Short Account of the Malignant
Fever, Lately Prevalent in Philadelphia -- Carey accused the black community of
profiteering from the disease and of plundering the houses of the sick. In response to
Carey's accusations, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones published their own pamphlet
in 1794 -- A Narrative of the Proceedings of the Black People, During the Late Awful
Calamity in Philadelphia in the Year 1793 and a Refutation of Some Censures,
Thrown upon them in some late Publications -- which described the courageous
actions of the blacks who dedicated themselves to fighting the disease and included a
meticulous accounting of payments and expenses.
Feb 23
Tuberculosis
Helen Bynum, Spitting Blood (2012)
11
Date
Topic
Readings
* Comparative Book Review due (Johnson and Bynum)
Patrice Bordelais, “Tuberculosis,” Epidemics Laid Low (2006) – Chapter 6
and 7 – pages 114-121; 131-133.
Primary Source material:

Harvard University Library Open Collections, Contagion: Historical
Views of Diseases and Epidemics, “Tuberculosis in Europe and North
America, 1800-1922”
http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion/tuberculosis.html
* Bardswell, Noel Dean. The Consumptive Working Man: What Can
Sanatoria Do for Him? London: Scientific Press, 1906.
- If you have time, peruse the Harvard University Library Open
Collections, and read a few pages from Bardswell’s text listed above
Mar 1
Influenza
Howard Phillips, “The Recent Wave of ‘Spanish’ Flu Historiography,” Social
12
Date
Topic
Readings
History of Medicine 27,4 (Nov 2014): 789-808.
Ilana Lowry, “Influenza and Historians: A Difficult Past,” Influenza and Public
Health: Learning for Past Pandemics edited by Tamara Giles-Vernick and
Susan Craddock with Jennifer Gunn (2010): 91-97.
Mark Humphries, “Paths of Infection: The First World War and the Origins of the
1918 Influenza Pandemic,” War in History 21,1 (Jan 2014): 55-81
Niall Johnson and Juergen Mueller, “'Updating the Accounts: Global Mortality of
the 1918-29 "Spanish " Influenza Pandemic'” Bulletin of the History of Medicine,
76, 1 (2002): 105-115.
Sandra Tomkins, 'The Failure of Expertise: Public Health Policy in Britain during
the 1918-19 Influenza Epidemic', Social History of Medicine, 5, 3 (1992): 43554.
Eugenia Tognotti, 'Scientific Triumphalism and Learning from Facts:
Bacteriology and the "Spanish Flu" Challenge of 1918', Social History of
Medicine, 16, 1 (2003): 97-110.
George Dehner, “WHO Knows Best? National and International Responses to
Pandemic Threats and the “Lessons” of 1976,” Journal of the History of
Medicine & Allied Sciences 65,4 (Oct 2010): 478-513.
Primary Source material:
(1) Choose any primary source materials at:
“1918 Influenza Digital Archive,” Center for the History of Medicine,
University of Michigan http://www.influenzaarchive.org/
* My selection -- I did a search on “mask” and then downloaded:
•
“Aggressive Anti-Flu Campaign Best Method To Combat Plague,”
Rocky Mountain News November 24, 1918, p. 5
Permalink: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.5190flu.0003.915
- Come prepared to discuss your selection in class, if called upon
Mar 8
Patrice Bordelais, “Vaccination,” (Ch6) Epidemics Laid Low (2006) –
13
Date
Topic
Readings
Polio
pages 109-127.
*skim to get a sense of the role of vaccination in the control of epidemics
A. Kirk-Montgomery and S.McKellar, “Prevention and Treatment of
Poliomyelitis, The Crippling Disease,” Medicine and Technology in Canada,
(2008), chapter 6. pp 95-107.
D.Wilson, “A Crippling Fear: Experiencing Polio in the Era of FDR,” Bulletin of
the History of Medicine 72 (1998): 464-495.
Per Axelsson, “The Cutter Incident and the Development of a Swedish Polio
Vaccine, 1952-1957,” Dynamis 32,3 (2012): 311-328
Stephen E. Mawdsley, “Balancing Risks: Childhood Inoculations and America's
Response to the Provocation of Paralytic Polio,” Social History of Medicine 26,4
(Nov 2013): 759-778
See also: Mawdsley, “Polio Provocation,” The Lancet 384 (July 26, 2014): 300-1
Naomi Rogers, “'Silence has its own Stories': Elizabeth Kenny, Polio and the
Culture of Medicine,” Social History of Medicine 21,1 (Apr 2008): 145-161.
Daniel J Wilson, “Comment: On the Borderland of Medical and Disability
History,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 87, 4 (Winter 2013): 536-539
Neal Nathanson and Olen M. Kew, “From Emergence to Eradication: The
Epidemiology of Poliomyelitis Deconstructed,” Journal of Epidemiology 172, 11
(Dec 2010): 1213-1229.
Primary Source material:
Examine photographs of polio survivors (Smithsonian Institution link below) and
images of President Roosevelt (FDR library link) to consider the constructed (or
not) “imagery of polio.”
• What do these images say about individual disease experiences,
constructed disease concepts, celebrity influences, socio-cultural views
of disability, and more?
• Are photographs and film useful primary sources for historians studying
the history of disease? Why or why not?
(1) Smithsonian Institution, “Whatever Happened to Polio? -- Understanding
Historical Photos,” online exhibit at:
http://amhistory.si.edu/polio/historicalphotos/index.htm
(2) Franklin D. Roosvelt Presidential Library and Museum, “FDR and Polio,”
online exhibit at: http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/aboutfdr/polio.html
- Come prepared to discuss images in class
- will bring up websites on classroom computer/projector
Mar 15
HIV-AIDS
Patrice Bordelais, “The End of a Dream?” (Ch8) Epidemics Laid Low
14
Date
Topic
Readings
(2006) – pages 140-149
Powel Kazanjian, “The AIDS Pandemic in Historic Perspective,” Journal of the
History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 69,3 (July 2014): 351-382.
Richard Poirir, “AIDS and Traditions of Homophobia,” In the Time of Plague:
The History and Social Consequences of Lethal Epidemic Disease edited by
Arien Mack (1992): 139-153.
Allan Brandt, “AIDS and Metaphor: Toward the Social Meaning of Epidemic
Disease,” In the Time of Plague: The History and Social Consequences of
Lethal Epidemic Disease edited by Arien Mack (1992): 91-110.
Dorothy Nelkin and Sander Gilman, “Placing Blame for Devastating Disease,” In
the Time of Plague: The History and Social Consequences of Lethal Epidemic
Disease edited by Arien Mack (1992): 39-56.
Warwick Anderson, “The New York needle trial: the politics of
public health in the age of AIDS” American Journal of Public Health
81,11 (Nov 1991):1506-17
Jennifer Brier, "Save Our Kids, Keep Aids Out": Anti-AIDS Activism and the
Legacy of Community Control in Queens, New York,” Journal of Social History
39,4 (Summer 2006): 965-987
- For background information on Ryan White, see
http://hab.hrsa.gov/abouthab/ryanwhite.html
Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, “Clinically Correct? AIDS Education in Ontario in the
1980s and 1990s,” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History 24, 2 (2007): 403-421
Primary Source material:
Examine the “material culture” and “art” of the AIDS experience through:
(1) The AIDS Memorial Quilt, supported by The NAMES Project Foundation
- start: http://www.aidsquilt.org/about/the-aids-memorial-quilt
- explore: http://www.aidsquilttouch.org/experience-quilt (note block#)
(2) The controversial art exhibit “Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing” (November
16, 1989 – January 6, 1990) organized by Nan Goldin at the Artists Space in
New York.
- start: http://artistsspace.org/exhibitions/witnesses-against-our-vanishing-3
- explore: http://issuu.com/artistsspace/docs/witnesses_catalog_full-singlefront_
Be prepared to discuss:
• Are these expressions of personal illness experiences or political
activism?
• Are material culture and art useful primary sources for historians
studying the history of disease? Why or why not?
- Come prepared to discuss your quilt block selection in class, if called upon
15
Date
Topic
Readings
Mar 22
21st C
Outbreaks
Patrice Bordelais, “Conclusion,” Epidemics Laid Low (2006) – pages 150154.
&
- Ten years after the publication of this chapter, think about the material and
themes that you add to this book
Wrap Up
Discussion
of Course
Themes
- Inform yourself about some of the 21st C outbreaks, including but not limited to
the following outbreaks and suggested reading:
•
SARS
Jacalyn Duffin and Arthur Sweetman, ed., SARS in Context: Memory,
History, Policy (MQUP, 2006) – online book at Western Libraries
http://books2.scholarsportal.info.proxy1.lib.uwo.ca/viewdoc.html?id=/ebooks
/ebooks3/upress/2013-08-23/1/9780773576841
•
Ebola
Jacqueline Weyer et al., “Ebola Virus Disease: History, Epidemiology and
Outbreaks,” Current Infectious Disease Report 17 (2015): 21.
•
Measles
Lawrence O. Gostin, “Law, Ethics and Public Health in the Vaccination
Debates: Politics of the Measles Outbreak,” JAMA 313, 11 (March 17,
2015): 1099-1100.
16