Maladies of Empire: How Colonialism, Slavery, and War Transformed Medicine.

"Maladies of Empire: How Colonialism, Slavery, and War Transformed Medicine" by Jim Downs explores the emergence of epidemiology as a result of colonialism, Atlantic slaving, and imperialist wars from the late eighteenth to the end of the nineteenth century. Downs examines various locations worldwide to understand how these forces influenced physicians and scientists to consider disease at the population level. The book highlights the use of global networks, scientific journals, and communication between different empires to collect and analyze data on disease outbreaks. Downs also emphasizes the contributions of enslaved and colonized people to the development of epidemiological science, drawing on Black feminist approaches. The book covers topics such as the link between overcrowding and disease on slave ships, debates on contagion theory, the role of military physicians in studying diseases like yellow fever, and the impact of war on medical practices. Downs utilizes a range of evidence, including archival materials and medical journals, to explore transimperial networks of knowledge production. While the book's teleological frame of medical progress may be analytically questionable, it offers valuable insights for historians of medicine researching the intersection of health, slavery, war, and colonialism. [Extracted from the article]