Down the ages, war epidemics have decimated the fighting strength of armies, caused the suspension and cancellation of military operations, and have brought havoc to the civil populations of belligerent and non-belligerent states alike. This book examines the historical occurrence and geographical spread of infectious diseases in association with past wars. It addresses an intrinsically geographical question: how are the spatial dynamics of epidemics influenced by military operations and the directives of war? The term historical geography in the title indicates the authors' primary concern with qualitative analyses of archival source materials over a 150-year time period from 1850, and this is combined with quantitative analyses less frequently associated with historical studies.
Written from the viewpoints of historical geography, epidemiology, and spatial analysis, this book examines in four parts the historical occurrence and geographical spread of infectious diseases in association with wars. Part I: War and Disease, surveys war-disease associations from early times to 1850. Part II: Temporal Trends studies time trends since 1850. Part III: A Regional Pattern of War Epidemics, examines grand themes in the war-disease complex. Part IV: Prospects, considers a series of war-related issues of epidemiological significance in the twenty-first century.
Prologue I: Ware and Disease 1: Wars and War Epidemics 2: Epidemics in Early Wars II: Temporal Trends 3: Mortality and Morbidity in Modern Wars, I: Civil Populations 4: Mortality and Morbidity in Modern Wars, II: Military Populations 5: Motality and Morbidity in Modern Wars, III: Displace Populations III: A Regional Pattern of War Epidemics 6: Tracking Epidemics 7: Pan America: Military Mobilization and Disease in the United States 8: Europe: Camp Epidemics 9: Asia and the Far East: Emerging and Re-emerging Diseases 10: Africa: Soldiers, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and War 11: Oceania: War Epidemics in South Pacific Islands 12: Further Regional Studies IV: Prospects 13: War and Disease: Recent Trends and Future Threats Epilogue
Matthew Smallman-Raynor is Professor of Analytical Geography at the University of Nottingham. Andrew Cliff is Professor of Theoretical Geography at the University of Cambridge.
Reviews for War Epidemics: An Historical Geography of Infectious Diseases in Military Conflict and Civil Strife, 1850-2000
"There is much that historians can learn from this large volume, which convincingly demonstrates the value of a quanttative approach to the study of epidemics in wartime. Mark Harrison, Medical History ""impressive scholarship that will make War Epidemics <\b> an indispensable work in its field."" Journal of the History of Medicine"
