Urban Epidemics: TB to Aids

This course will deal with infectious diseases in American cities over time. Severe epidemics of contagious disease are a creation of civilization, requiring as they do the large population that crowded cities provide. The course will deal with a number of devastating diseases (among them tuberculosis, cholera, syphilis, hepatitis, polio, and AIDS) and their effect on city life. The social construction of disease and the changing cultural meanings of different diseases will be dealt with.