Dr Patrick Wallis

Optional on MSc Economic History, MSc Economic History (Research), MSc Global History, MSc Political Economy of Late Development, LSE-Columbia University Double Degree in International and World History, MSc Biomedicine, Bioscience and Society and MA Global Studies: A European Perspective. Students taking other master’s degrees may be admitted, space and timetable permitting, and with the approval of their department and the course teacher.

This course analyses the impact of epidemic disease on human societies and economies from the Black Death to the present. It examines arguments and evidence about epidemics’ relationship to economic, social, demographic and political change – such as the role of the black death in initiating economic growth in Europe, of epidemics in allowing the conquest of the Americas, and cholera in leading to social tensions and even revolution in 19th century Europe. It will also explore the development and implementation of medical, political and social responses to epidemics. Epidemics are crises that test the capacity of societies to manage disaster and that divide communities along lines of wealth, race and blame. We will explore the characteristics of social responses to disease, the development of local and state capacities to manage crises, and the patterns of resistance that this elicited from those affected. Case studies will focus on epidemics in Europe, Central America, and Asia, but reference may also be made to the experience of other regions, in order to achieve a more global picture.

20 hours of seminars in MT. One hour of revision in the ST.

Two written papers of 2,500 words during the course.

P Baldwin, Contagion and the State in Europe, 1830-1930 (Cambridge, 1999); L Garrett, The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World out of Balance (London, 1995); W H McNeill, Plagues and Peoples (Harmondsworth, 1976); A W Crosby, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900 (Cambridge, 1986); C Hamlin, Public Health and Social Justice in the Age of Chadwick: Britain, 1800-1854 (Cambridge, 1998); S J Watts, Epidemics and History: Disease, Power, and Imperialism (New Haven, 1997); C E Rosenberg, Explaining Epidemics and Other Studies in the History of Medicine (Cambridge, 1992); D Porter (ed), The History of Public Health and the Modern State (Amsterdam, 1994); P Farmer, Infections and Inequalities (Berkeley, 1999).

One two-hour exam in the ST (100%).