Research and write an essay on some aspect of the role of disease in history.
You are also allowed to choose any disease of your choice
•Disease in history is broad topic and in this assignment you have freedom to select some aspects you want to write about.
• Think about what historians do with the topic • Think about what an historical investigation reveals
• Think about what role infectious disease plays in human history
• Can’t do everything, have to be a little selective, aim to be interesting
• Example of disease “disasters”, involving cholera, tuberculosis and potato blight. You can use other examples such as small pox etc.
• In each case there is an historical context, a social, economic, technological or political situation in which the disease happened. Those contexts often allowed the challenge of disease to become a disaster. Context is really important for historians, understanding the setting in which something happened. Understanding what was and was not possible.
