HIST 234: Epidemics in Western Society Since 1600

Lecture 18 - Tuberculosis (I): The Era of Consumption << previous session | next session >>

Overview:

An ancient disease, tuberculosis experienced a major upsurge in Western Europe in the nineteenth century, corresponding with increasing industrialization and urbanization. Poor air quality and cramped living conditions increased susceptibility to the disease. Tuberculosis also had a significant impact on European culture. In this respect, the modern career of the disease can be divided into two eras: the first associated with artistic romanticism and the idealized image of the beautiful and brilliant consumptive, the second, following the germ theory of disease, linking tuberculosis with social fears of poverty and contagion.

Reading assignment:

Barnes, The Making of a Social Disease: Tuberculosis in France

Class lecture:

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