Overview

Full Product Details

9781554813940

Table of Contents

Reviews

Broad Street in London exerts an almost mythical hold over public health. But what do we really know about it? Peter Vinten-Johansen expertly deconstructs the legend by using a wide range of original documents to reconstruct the trajectories of cholera from India to Great Britain in the mid-nineteenth century. An exemplary model of its kind, this book is an essential resource for teachers and students of history and public health who want to understand how the knowledges and practices of medicine, science and politics were brought together in an attempt to solve a pressing problem that had dire consequences at local and global scales. -- Graham Mooney, Johns Hopkins University With highly engaging prose, accessible primary sources, and thought-provoking prompts, Vinten-Johansen has produced an invaluable resource for students who want to understand better not only the monumental shifts in scientific methods and thinking concerning epidemics and disease in the 19th century, but also what it means to 'do' history as he invites readers to conduct their own detective work and textual interpretations. An ideal blend of choose-your-own-adventure approach to storytelling combined with serious scholarship and documentation, Investigating Cholera will make the history of epidemics--and the classroom--come alive. -- Beth Linker, University of Pennsylvania This freshly-edited collection of documents relating to the cholera outbreaks in mid-nineteenth century Britain will prove invaluable for students and tutors alike. The material has been gathered to dispel the anachronistic view that John Snow was either a lone and derided genius, or 'a prototypical germ-theorist'. The story of cholera investigation that emerges here is a collaborative one. The contingency of contemporary 'knowledge' about cholera is re-established: it was not necessarily obvious in the 1850s that it was only communicated by water.... The insertion of 'questions to consider' and marginal definitions of selected terms will enable students to navigate their reading more productively. The collation of sources and comments will allow tutors to refresh their delivery of a key moment in public-health history. -- Alannah Tomkins, Keele University

Author Information

Peter Vinten-Johansen is Professor Emeritus at Michigan State University. He is the lead author of Cholera, Chloroform, and the Science of Medicine: A Life of John Snow, with co-authors Howard Brody, Nigel Paneth, Stephen Rachman, and Michael Rip, and he is the co-founder and content manager of the John Snow Archive and Research Companion.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available