Epidemics and the Modern World

Epidemics and the Modern World explores the relationships between epidemics and key themes in modern history. Our institutions, colonial structures, relationships to animals, and perceptions of suffering, sexuality, race, and disability have all shaped – and been shaped by – these significant medical events.

This book uses "biographies" of epidemics such as plague, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS to explore the impact of disease on the development of modern societies from the fourteenth century t...