Epidemic Cities

This Elements provides an overview of the history of epidemics using a range of cities around the world.

Epidemic Cities provides an overview of the history of epidemics through a particular focus on a range of cities in different regions of the world. The dual focus on both epidemics and specific cities provides an unusual perspective on global history: the analysis of globally circulating epidemics enables reconstructing a variety of wide-reaching entanglements, on the one hand. On the other hand, the concentration with specific urban settings highlights differences and the unevenness engendered by global entanglements. After an introduction concerning the history of the relationship between medicine, epidemics, and cities, the book focuses on the history of three epidemic diseases and how they affected Paris, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Bombay, and Baltimore. The timings of major pandemics punctuate the structure of the book: cholera pandemics from the 1830s to the late nineteenth century, bubonic plague at the turn of the twentieth century, and finally tuberculosis until the mid-twentieth century.