HIST 234: Epidemics in Western Society Since 1600 (Spring 2010, Open Yale Courses) | History and Human Culture

HIST 234: Epidemics in Western Society Since 1600

HIST 234: Epidemics in Western Society Since 1600 (Spring 2010, Open Yale Courses). Instructor: Professor Frank Snowden. This course consists of an international analysis of the impact of epidemic diseases on western society and culture from the bubonic plague to HIV/AIDS and the recent experience of SARS and swine flu. Leading themes include: infectious disease and its impact on society; the development of public health measures; the role of medical ethics; the genre of plague literature; the social reactions of mass hysteria and violence; the rise of the germ theory of disease; the development of tropical medicine; a comparison of the social, cultural, and historical impact of major infectious diseases; and the issue of emerging and re-emerging diseases. (from oyc.yale.edu)

Introduction

Lecture 01 - Introduction to the Course

Lecture 02 - Classical Views of Disease: Hippocrates, Galen, and Humoralism

Lecture 03 - Plague (I): Pestilence as Disease

Lecture 04 - Plague (II): Responses and Measures

Lecture 05 - Plague (III): Illustrations and Conclusions

Lecture 06 - Smallpox (I): "The Speckled Monster"

Lecture 07 - Smallpox (II): Jenner, Vaccination, and Eradication

Lecture 08 - Nineteenth-Century Medicine: The Paris School of Medicine

Lecture 09 - Asiatic Cholera (I): Personal Reflections

Lecture 10 - Asiatic Cholera (II): Five Pandemics

Lecture 11 - The Sanitary Movement and the "Filth Theory of Disease"

Lecture 12 - Syphilis: From the "Great Pox" to the Modern Version

Lecture 13 - Contagionism versus Anticontagionism

Lecture 14 - The Germ Theory of Disease

Lecture 15 - Tropical Medicine as a Discipline

Lecture 16 - Malaria (I): The Case of Italy

Lecture 17 - Malaria (II): The Global Challenge

Lecture 18 - Tuberculosis (I): The Era of Consumption

Lecture 19 - Tuberculosis (II): After Robert Koch

Lecture 20 - Pandemic Influenza

Lecture 21 - The Tuskegee Experiment

Lecture 22 - AIDS (I)

Lecture 23 - AIDS (II)

Lecture 24 - Poliomyelitis: Problems of Eradication

Lecture 25 - SARS, Avian Inluenza, and Swine Flu: Lessons and Prospects

Lecture 26 - Final Q & A

References

HIST 234: Epidemics in Western Society Since 1600
Instructor: Professor Frank Snowden. Class Sessions. Downloads. Syllabus. This course consists of an international analysis of the impact of epidemic diseases on western society and culture.