Maladies of Empire - How Colonialism, Slavery, and War Transformed Medicine

Standard histories of infectious disease celebrate brilliant minds such as Florence Nightingale, John Snow, and Robert Koch. In this unorthodox telling, Jim Downs focuses on a forgotten group of contributors: the conscript soldiers, colonial subjects, and enslaved people whose bodies were the experimental matter on which medical progress relied.

About the author

Jim Downs is Gilder Lehrman–National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of Civil War Era Studies and History at Gettysburg College. He is the editor of Civil War History and author and editor of six other books, including Sick from Freedom: African-American Illness and Suffering during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Product details

• Authors: Jim Downs, Downs Jim
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.10.2023
• EAN: 9780674293861
• ISBN: 978-0-674-29386-1
• No. of pages: 272
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Medicine > Clinical medicine; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Minority Studies, SCIENCE / History, POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory, HISTORY / World, MEDICAL / History, General & world history, History of Medicine, Political science & theory, History of Science, Ethnic groups and multicultural studies, General and world history, Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies, Political science and theory, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Biracial & Multiracial Studies