Epidemics: Plagues, Peoples, and Politics

(Cross-listed w/ CH 108 and STS 108) Origins and evolution of epidemics, rooted in biology, social organization, culture, and political economy. Societies' efforts to contain diseases with a global reach, their effects on world history, their record in literature and art. Cases from early plagues (syphilis, smallpox, bubonic plague), the recurrent threats of influenza, malaria, and tuberculosis, 19th century famines and cholera, to AIDS, emergent diseases like SARS, Ebola and the "epidemics" of globalization spawned by changes in work, living conditions, and the environment.