Disparities in health are a familiar part of public health discourse and practices, perhaps given their paradigmatic form by William Farr in Victorian Britain. The left typically focuses on the relationship of disparities to social injustice as it attempts to build a political bloc able to exert power to construct measures addressing economic inequality, social justice, and public health to help reduce such inequalities. This presentation examines the relationship of the discourse on disparities in health surrounding the cholera epidemics in Germany and Italy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for clues to understanding the relationship of disparities in the recent resurgence of infectious disease in the United States to the left's project of the political construction of public health and health equality. Drawing on recent landmark historical work on cholera by Richard J. Evans and Frank M. Snowden, the talk will examine this earlier period in the European left's encounter with infectious disease for ways to inform our task of translating knowledge of disparities in the health impact of infectious disease into meaningful social change.
Learning Objectives: To stimulate the listeners' interest in the long encounter of the European and American left with disparities related to infectious disease, principally cholera and the recent resurgence of many forms
Keywords: History, Politics
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.