More Than Hot : A Short History of Fever
Saved in:
| Title: | More Than Hot : A Short History of Fever |
|---|---|
| Description: | A conceptual and cultural history of fever, a universally experienced and sometimes feared symptom.Winner of the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of the Choice ACRLChristopher Hamlin's magisterial work engages a common experience—fever—in all its varieties and meanings. Reviewing the representations of that condition from ancient times to the present, More Than Hot is a history of the world through the lens of fever. The book deals with the expression of fever, with the efforts of medical scientists to classify it, and with fever's changing social, cultural, and political significance. Long before there were thermometers to measure it, people recognized fever as a dangerous, if transitory, state of being. It was the most familiar form of alienation from the normal self, a concern to communities and states as well as to patients, families, and healers. The earliest medical writers struggled for a conceptual vocabulary to explain fever. During the Enlightenment, the idea of fever became a means to acknowledge the biological experiences that united humans. A century later, in the age of imperialism, it would become a key element of conquest, both an important way of differentiating places and races, and of imposing global expectations of health. Ultimately the concept would split:'fevers'were dangerous and often exotic epidemic diseases, while “fever” remained a curious physiological state, certainly distressing but usually benign. By the end of the twentieth century, that divergence divided the world between a global South profoundly affected by fevers—chiefly malaria—and a North where fever, now merely a symptom, was so medically trivial as to be transformed into a familiar motif of popular culture.A senior historian of science and medicine, Hamlin shares stories from individuals—some eminent, many forgotten—who exemplify aspects of fever: reflections of the fevered, for whom fevers, and especially the vivid hallucinations of delirium, were sometimes transformative; of those who cared for them (nurses and, often, mothers); and of those who sought to explain deadly epidemic outbreaks. Significant also are the arguments of the reformers, for whom fever stood as a proxy for manifold forms of injustice. Broad in scope and sweep, Hamlin's study is a reflection of how the meanings of diseases continue to shift, affecting not only the identities we create but often also our ability to survive. |
| Authors: | Christopher Hamlin |
| Resource Type: | eBook. |
| Subjects: | Public health--History, Epidemics--History, Fever |
| Categories: | MEDICAL / History, HISTORY / Social History, MEDICAL / Public Health, SCIENCE / History |
| Database: | eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) |
| FullText | Links: – Type: ebook-pdf – Type: ebook-epub Text: Availability: 0 |
|---|---|
| Header | DbId: nlebk DbLabel: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) An: 778051 RelevancyScore: 1057 AccessLevel: 6 PubType: eBook PubTypeId: ebook PreciseRelevancyScore: 1057.36352539063 |
| IllustrationInfo | |
| ImageInfo | – Size: thumb Target: https://rps2images.ebscohost.com/rpsweb/othumb?id=NL$778051$PDF&s=r – Size: medium Target: https://rps2images.ebscohost.com/rpsweb/othumb?id=NL$778051$PDF&s=d |
| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: More Than Hot : A Short History of Fever – Name: Abstract Label: Description Group: Ab Data: A conceptual and cultural history of fever, a universally experienced and sometimes feared symptom.Winner of the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of the Choice ACRLChristopher Hamlin's magisterial work engages a common experience—fever—in all its varieties and meanings. Reviewing the representations of that condition from ancient times to the present, More Than Hot is a history of the world through the lens of fever. The book deals with the expression of fever, with the efforts of medical scientists to classify it, and with fever's changing social, cultural, and political significance. Long before there were thermometers to measure it, people recognized fever as a dangerous, if transitory, state of being. It was the most familiar form of alienation from the normal self, a concern to communities and states as well as to patients, families, and healers. The earliest medical writers struggled for a conceptual vocabulary to explain fever. During the Enlightenment, the idea of fever became a means to acknowledge the biological experiences that united humans. A century later, in the age of imperialism, it would become a key element of conquest, both an important way of differentiating places and races, and of imposing global expectations of health. Ultimately the concept would split:'fevers'were dangerous and often exotic epidemic diseases, while “fever” remained a curious physiological state, certainly distressing but usually benign. By the end of the twentieth century, that divergence divided the world between a global South profoundly affected by fevers—chiefly malaria—and a North where fever, now merely a symptom, was so medically trivial as to be transformed into a familiar motif of popular culture.A senior historian of science and medicine, Hamlin shares stories from individuals—some eminent, many forgotten—who exemplify aspects of fever: reflections of the fevered, for whom fevers, and especially the vivid hallucinations of delirium, were sometimes transformative; of those who cared for them (nurses and, often, mothers); and of those who sought to explain deadly epidemic outbreaks. Significant also are the arguments of the reformers, for whom fever stood as a proxy for manifold forms of injustice. Broad in scope and sweep, Hamlin's study is a reflection of how the meanings of diseases continue to shift, affecting not only the identities we create but often also our ability to survive. – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Christopher+Hamlin%22">Christopher Hamlin</searchLink> – Name: TypePub Label: Resource Type Group: TypPub Data: eBook. – Name: Subject Label: Subjects Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Public+health--History%22">Public health--History</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Epidemics--History%22">Epidemics--History</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Fever%22">Fever</searchLink> – Name: SubjectBISAC Label: Categories Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22MEDICAL+%2F+History%22">MEDICAL / History</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22HISTORY+%2F+Social+History%22">HISTORY / Social History</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22MEDICAL+%2F+Public+Health%22">MEDICAL / Public Health</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22SCIENCE+%2F+History%22">SCIENCE / History</searchLink> |
| PLink | https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=nlebk&AN=778051 |
| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Classifications: – Code: 614.5112 Scheme: ddc Type: prePub Languages: – Code: eng Text: English Subjects: – SubjectFull: Public health--History Type: general – SubjectFull: Epidemics--History Type: general – SubjectFull: Fever Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: More Than Hot : A Short History of Fever Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Christopher Hamlin – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Christopher Hamlin IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 01 Type: published Y: 2014 – D: 05 M: 09 Type: profile Y: 2014 Identifiers: – Type: isbn-print Value: 9781421415024 – Type: isbn-electronic Value: 9781421415031 Titles: – TitleFull: More Than Hot : A Short History of Fever Type: main |
| ResultId | 1 |
