Contours of Death and Disease in Early Modern England

Using a wide range of sources, the author examines the dramatic variations in death rates and disease patterns across the English countryside, and in so doing gives the first detailed account of the history of malaria in England.This book provides a penetrating account of death and disease in early modern England. Using a wide range of sources for the south-east of England, the author highlights the tremendous variation in levels of mortality across geographical contours and across two centuries. She explores the epidemiological causes and consequences of these mortality variations, and offers the reader a fascinating insight into the way patients and practitioners perceived, understood and reacted to the multitude of fevers, poxes and plagues in past times.This book provides a penetrating account of death and disease in England during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Using a wide range of sources for the south-east of England, the author highlights the tremendous variation in levels of mortality across geographical contours and across two centuries. She explores the epidemiological causes and consequences of these mortality variations, and offers the reader a fascinating insight into the way patients and practitioners perceived, understood and reacted to the multitude of fevers, poxes and plagues in past times. She examines, in particular, the significance of malaria in English demographic history, and provides a detailed account of the history of this once endemic disease. This broad-ranging and stimulating study will be of interest to historical demographers, medical historians, geographers and epidemiologists.' ... an exhaustive demonstration of how essential it is to bring the skills of historians, geographers and demographers together if we are to understand disease in the past. No one could read ... appreciation of the intricacies of the topic, and a heightened admiration for the author's achievement in unravelling them.' The English Historical Review"...a remarkable book that deserves an audience much broader than that of strictly historical demographers." American Historical Review"...breaks new ground by promoting regional historical demography." Journal of Economic History"Contours of Death and Disease presents its extraordinary array of demographic and descriptive information in creative and compelling ways." Historian"Dobson's study is an essential reference work not only for `historical demographers, medical historians, geographers, and epidemiologists,' but for all scholars of early modern English society and culture." The Historian'Dobson's work is a model study which one very much hopes will in due course be emulated by similar studies of other regions: ... the book is an admirable addition to the 'Cambridge Studies of Population, Economy and Society in Past Time' series which fully maintains the exemplary standards of the Cambridge University Press.' The History Journal"It is an impressive book, with evidence drawn from parish registers, diaries, journals, church records, news accounts, official surveys, tax records, census data, and many other sources. The thoroughness of Mary Dobson's research allowed her to draw a complete picture of death and disease over two centuries and to understand the relationship between the environment and health. Dobson's book is primarily a history of death and disease, but it is much more. It contains a wealth of information about demography, geography, and society. It will stand as a valuable resource for historians of the early modern era." Journal of Social History'... outstanding work of scholarship ... Dr Dobson must be congratulated for such a major innovative publication which has added very greatly to our knowledge of the medical history of the period.' The Local Historian"...quantitative analysis are informed and enriched by a wide range of qualitative research..." Michael Zell, Journal of Modern History"The amount of work Dobson undertook for this volume is phenomenal..." Isis"This book is nothing less than a magisterial work of prodigious scholarship. Dobson's astute and thorough methodology, comfort with interdisciplinary materials, and facile writing and quantitative displays are exemplary and provide scholars and students with a model for similar research." Sixteenth Century JournalThe first geographical, demographic and epidemiological study of disease and mortality in early modern England.