Maladies of Empire2021
How Slavery, Imperialism, and War Transformed Medicine
by Jim Downs
"Standard histories of medicine celebrate brilliant Westerners such as Florence Nightingale and John Snow. In this unorthodox telling, Jim Downs turns our focus to another key group of contributors: the subjugated peoples-forced into close quarters by enslavement and empire-whose bodies were the experimental matter on which medical progress relied"--
A sweeping global history that looks beyond European urban centers to show how slavery, colonialism, and war propelled the development of modern medicine. Most stories of medical progress come with ready-made heroes. John Snow traced the origins of London's 1854 cholera outbreak to a water pump, leading to the birth of epidemiology. Florence Nightingale's contributions to the care of soldiers in the Crimean War revolutionized medical hygiene,...