Cholera in Post-Revolutionary Paris

by Kudlick, Catherine Jean

• ISBN13: 9780520202733
• ISBN10: 0520202732
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-03-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr on Demand

Summary

Cholera terrified and fascinated nineteenth-century Europeans more than any other modern disease. Its symptoms were gruesome, its sources were mysterious, and it tended to strike poor neighborhoods hardest. In this insightful cultural history, Catherine Kudlick explores the dynamics of class relations through an investigation of the responses to two cholera epidemics in Paris. While Paris climbed toward the height of its urban and industrial growth, two outbreaks of the disease ravaged the capital, one in 1832, the other in 1849. Despite the similarity of the epidemics, the first outbreak was met with general frenzy and far greater attention in the press, popular literature and personal accounts, while the second was greeted with relative silence. Finding no compelling evidence for improved medical knowledge, changes in the Paris environment, or desensitization of Parisians, Kudlick looks to the evolution of the French revolutionary tradition and the emergence of the Parisian bourgeoisie for answers.

Author Biography

Catherine J. Kudlick is Assistant Professor of History at the University of California, Davis.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations and Tables
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The "Silence of 1849"	p. 1
The Epidemic and Revolutionary Traditions of Paris	p. 31
Cholera's Messengers	p. 65
Inventing Perceptions of Disease and Government	p. 104
Catholicism and Cholera	p. 140
Disease and Social Unrest	p. 176
Conclusion	p. 213
Notes	p. 221
Selected Bibliography	p. 267
Index	p. 279
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