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

“Maladies of Empire has a captivating writing style, is exhaustively researched, and is persuasive in argumentation.

Jim Downs has written a game- changing book.”―Deirdre Cooper Owens, author of Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology“An eye-popping study of the history of infectious diseases, how they spread, and especially how they have been thwarted by experimentation on the bodies of soldiers, slaves, and colonial subjects…a timely, brilliant book about some of the brutal ironies in the story of medical progress.”―David W.

Blight, author of Frederick Douglass“Brilliant…Jim Downs uncovers the origins of epidemiology in slavery, colonialism, and war.

A most original global history, this book is required reading for historians, medical researchers, and really anyone interested in the origins of modern medicine.”―Sven Beckert, author of Empire of Cotton“[Sheds] light on the violent foundations of disease control interventions and public health initiatives [and] implores us to address their inequities in the present.”―Ragav Kishore, The Lancet