Naples in the Time of Cholera, 1884-1911

by Frank M. Snowden

Overview

This is a medical and social history of Italy's largest city during the cholera epidemics of 1884 and 1910-11. It explores the factors that exposed Naples to risk; it examines such popular responses as social hysteria, riots, and religiosity; and it traces therapeutic strategies. This book is the first extended study of cholera in modern Italy; it sets Naples in a comparative international framework and relates the disease to larger historical issues, such as the nature of liberal statecraft, the "southern question," mass emigration, organized crime, and the medical profession.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521893862
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/18/2002
Edition description:	First Paperback Edition
Pages:	496
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 1.10(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; Introduction; Part I. Sanitary Anxieties: 1. A city at risk; Part II. The Public Epidemic of 1884: 2. From Provence to the Bay of Naples; 3. Death in Naples; 4. Survival and recovery; Part III. Risanamento and Miasma: 5. Rebuilding medicine and politics; Part IV. The Secret Epidemic of 1910–11: 6. The return of cholera: 1910; 7. Concealment and crisis: 1911; Conclusion: Neapolitan cholera and Italian politics; Bibliography.

Editorial Reviews

"Snowden's work contributes significantly to cholera's bipolar historiography....Rigorous scholarship, a clear narrative, and 'user friendly' critical apparatus sustain Snowden's thesis....An outstanding book that historians cannot ignore." Choice

"The complex relations among disease, science, attitudes, beliefs, and society are richly documented in Frank Snowden's fascinating book Naples in the Time of Cholera, 1884-1911....Snowden's account of how the lack of government control and the greed of the private sector severely compromised the program should be carefully read by proponents of unfettered free enterprise....We were both hooked by Snowden's ability to invoke our senses to experience the smells, sights, and sounds of cholera while awakening our sensibilities to the culture of the times and the parallels with today's attitudes about disease." Parker A. Small, Jr., and Natalie S. Small, New England Journal of Medicine

"Using a diverse list of interesting contemporary sources both in Italy and the United States, Frank Snowden has written a well-documented detective story..." Lawrence P. Adamczyk, The Historian

"Well-researched and powerfully written, this book is important to anyone interested in post-unitary Italy or the history of infectious dieases....excellent example of investigative history, and one only regrets that a review cannot truly do justice to the rich number of interesting secondary subjects and debates that the author manages somehow to weave into his main narrative." Steven Hughes, Journal of Social History

"...should inspire further research into the ways in which the new history of medicine can enrich our understanding of modern Italy." Mary Gibson, American Historical Review

"...imaginative and carefully researched.... A brilliant book, Naples in the Time of Cholera deserves to be acknowledged as a model of interpretive history. It confirms that history can be one measure of comprehending the present and a buffer against repeating such disastrous errors of judgment in the future." Gabriel P. Weisberg, European Studies Journal

"Snowden's book is an indispensible guide to the 19th- and early 20th-century Italian history. It is also a model of historical analysis which deserves emulation." Peter L. Brown, Urban History Review

From the Publisher