Pestilence and Plagues in History

Instructor: Dr. W. Harry York

Course Description:
In this course we will consider the history of disease from the Middle Ages to the present day. We will explore the social, institutional and cultural responses to disease and disability in past societies as we consider recent scholarly approaches to studying the history of diseases.

We will start by examining the Black Death and leprosy in the Middle Ages. From there we will consider diseases of melancholy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. We will also consider more recent responses to epidemic diseases (cholera, tuberculosis, AIDS). Finally, we will explore nineteenth and twentieth century efforts to medicalize and otherwise define onanism, alcoholism and degeneration as diseases.

As we examine concepts of disease in different historical periods we will need to consider the medical/scientific theories of disease causation and transmission, and how they related to broader cultural conceptions of disease. In doing so we will need to consider the meanings of disease in different societies. Through this approach we should develop concepts that will allow us to consider the meaning of disease in our own society.

Students will have the opportunity to read a number of primary sources as we consider the role of disease in different historical contexts. They will also read a number of secondary texts that will help to provide a scholarly framework within which to consider the study of diseases in history. Students will be expected to produce a final written report exploring scholarly work on a single disease and to give an oral report to the class on their findings.