Maladies of Empire

How Colonialism, Slavery, and War Transformed Medicine

By: Jim Downs

Narrated by: David Colacci

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 transformed hospitals from crucibles of infection to sanctuaries of recuperation. Yet histories of individual innovators ignore many key sources of medical knowledge.

Reexamining the foundations of modern medicine, Jim Downs shows that the study of infectious disease depended crucially on the unrecognized contributions of nonconsenting subjects-conscripted soldiers, enslaved people, and subjects of empire. Plantations, slave ships, and battlefields were the laboratories in which physicians came to understand the spread of disease. Military doctors learned about the importance of air quality by monitoring Africans confined to the bottom of slave ships. Statisticians charted cholera outbreaks by surveilling Muslims in British-dominated territories returning from their annual pilgrimage.

The scientific knowledge derived from discarding and exploiting human life is now the basis of our ability to protect humanity from epidemics. Boldly argued and eye-opening, Maladies of Empire gives a full account of the true price of medical progress.

©2021 The President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2022 Tantor

Very Interesting

Fascinating to learn how doctors came to understand the causes of diseases and how crucial anonymous subjegated people were to that body of knowledge.

Riveting!

An eye-opening book. I had no idea how epidemiology grew out of studying enslaved and imprisoned individuals. This is especially timely in these Covid times. A fascinating read.