The Big Killers: Mortality Crises in Social Context

Extract

The emergence of new infectious diseases and the resurgence of old ones fascinate scholars as well as the public. Before the Ebola virus made the best-seller lists or starred in a feature-length film, the International Commission on Historical Demography (ICHD) had planned a colloquium for its quinquennial meeting in Montreal, “The Big Killers: Epidemics, Famine, and War in Historical Perspective” (27 August–3 September 1995). Twenty-eight papers materialized. Interpretation and synthesis were the principal concerns. Technical obsessions of the guild—methodology, data, quantification, and the like—were banned. Instead, authors were encouraged to focus on the interrelations between mortality crises, on the one hand, and culture, society, economy, and politics, on the other.