Department of History and Sociology of Science
Health and Societies Program
University of Pennsylvania
Fall 2006
HSOC 48/STSC 39:
EPIDEMICS IN HISTORY
MW 2-3:30 p.m.
302 Van Pelt Library
Office Hours: MW 9:3011, T 4-5
323 Logan Hall
David S. Barnes
(215) 898-8210
dbarnes@sas.upenn.edu
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Description:
Dramatic and terrifying in their immediacy, outbreaks
of epidemic disease have devastated and transformed human
societies since the beginnings of recorded history. From
the Black Death to cholera to AIDS, epidemics have wrought
profound demographic, social, political, and cultural
change all over the world. Such is the power of their
mystery and horror that while thousands die everyday in the
United States from mundane illnesses such as heart disease
or lung cancer, panic grips the land at the news of a
handful of deaths from seemingly exotic afflictions such as
West Nile encephalitis and avian influenza. Through a
detailed analysis of specific historical outbreaks, this
seminar will investigate the causes and effects of epidemic
disease, and will examine the ways in which different
societies in different eras have responded in times of
crisis.
Requirements:
• attendance at all class meetings;
• all required readings, completed before class
meeting for which they are assigned;
• active participation in class discussions;
• discussion questions prepared for class meetings to
be arranged, based on required readings;
• short paper (4-5 pages), on topic to be assigned;
• research assignment (annotated primary-source
bibliography)
• final research paper (15-20 pages): "Biography of an
Epidemic."
Detailed instructions for the written assignments will be
distributed in class and posted on the course’s Blackboard
site (under “Assignments”).
Readings: Assigned books are available for purchase
at Penn Book Center (34th and Sansom Sts.). Shorter
required readings are available in a coursepack which can
be purchased at Campus Copy Center (3907 Walnut St.). Some
additional short readings will be available through the
course’s Blackboard site (under “Readings”).
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Attendance and participation: These are not optional.
Participation involves active listening and engagement—more
than simply showing up, and more than sheer volume of oral
output.
Grading:
Class attendance and participation:
Discussion questions:
first short paper:
research assignment
15%
Final paper:
30%
10% (total)
15%
30%
Consistent effort and improvement will be weighted heavily
in grading.
A general overview of grading standards:
A = outstanding, nearly flawless work; assignment(s)
completed thoroughly; technically excellent; evidence of
creativity and/or inspiration, deep contextual grasp of
issues and connections among issues; and ability to
synthesize individual elements into broader historical
analysis.
B = good work; all aspects of assignment(s) completed
thoroughly and competently; technically competent (though
perhaps not perfect) in spelling, grammar, format,
citations; presentation adequate; does not consistently
show inspiration, creativity, deeper grasp of connections,
interpretations, and/or synthesis among elements.
C = less than fully satisfactory work; assignment(s) not
completed thoroughly or according to instructions; basic
grasp of issues not always evident; more than occasional
technical flaws.
D = basic work of course (or assignment) not done, little
or no effort evident.
Academic Integrity
Academic dishonesty is one of the most serious
offenses a student can commit. The College takes it
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extremely seriously, and so do I.
reads (in part) as follows:
The College’s policy
Academic integrity is the core value of a
university. It is only through the honest production
and criticism of scholarship that we become educated
and create knowledge. Admission to Penn signifies
your entry into this community of scholars and your
willingness to abide by our commonly agreed upon
rules for the creation of knowledge.
Specifically, as members of this community, we are
all expected to be honest about the nature of our
academic work. Papers, examinations, oral reports,
the results of laboratory experiments, and other
academic assignments must be the product of
individual endeavor, except when an instructor has
specifically approved collaborative efforts.
Multiple submissions of the same paper, except with
the expressed approval of both instructors, are also
unethical and a violation of academic integrity.
Academic work represents not only what we have
learned about a subject but also how we have learned
it. Therefore it is unethical and a violation of
academic integrity to copy from the work of others
or submit their work as one's own; all sources,
including the sources of ideas, must be acknowledged
and cited in ways appropriate to one's discipline.
Electronic sources, such as found in the Internet or
on the World Wide Web, must also be cited. These are
the methods of scholars, adopted so that others may
trace our footsteps, verify what we have learned,
and build upon our work, and all members of the
academic community are expected to meet these
obligations of scholarship. There are many
publications, such as the Chicago Manual of Style or
the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
(which has been placed in Rosengarten Reserve by the
Honor Council), that provide information about
methods of proper citation. When in doubt, cite.
Failure to acknowledge sources is plagiarism,
regardless of intention.
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Schedule of Topics and Assigned Readings
Date
Topic
Sept. 6
Introduction and
Overview
Reading Assignment

Sept.
11
Charles Rosenberg, “What Is an
Epidemic? AIDS in Historical
Perspective” [coursepack]
Ebola!

Sept.
13
Liquefied
Organs!
Sept.
18
Plague!
Sept.
20
More Plague
Sept.
25
Yellow Fever



Preston, The Hot Zone, 157-411

Charles Rosenberg, “Explaining
Epidemics” [coursepack]
Brian Pullan, “Plague and Perceptions
of the Poor in Early Modern Italy”
[coursepack]
Defoe, Journal of a Plague Year, 1-75,
190-248

Powell,

Sept.
27
F Sept.
29
Oct. 2
Oct. 4
Preston, The Hot Zone, 3-153
Bring Out Your Dead, 1-139
Powell,
Bring Out Your Dead
(remainder)
 Samuel Choppin, “History of the
Importation of Yellow Fever into the
United States, From 1693 to 1878”
[coursepack]
Yellow Fever
Short Paper Due

S.J. Connolly, “The ‘Blessed Turf’:
Cholera and Popular Panic in Ireland,
June 1832” [coursepack]

John Snow, "The Cholera Near Golden
Square" [coursepack]
Cholera
Cholera

Rosenberg, The Cholera Years, 1-98
6
Oct. 9
Oct. 11

Rosenberg, The Cholera Years, 101-242
Research
Workshop I


Oct. 16
Plague in the
20th Century?
Oct. 18
In the U.S.
Even?
Oct. 23
No Class (Fall
Break)
Oct. 25
The Big One
Oct. 30
The Big One
Nov. 1
The Big One
F Nov.
3
Research
Assignment Due
Nov. 6
Not More Plague
Again!
Nov. 8
(But this time
it’s fictional—
or is it?)
Nov. 13
Research
Workshop II
Nov. 15
AIDS
Nov. 20
AIDS
Nov. 22
No Class
(Thanksgiving
Eve)
Nov. 27
AIDS Again


Simon Flexner, “The Plague in
California” [coursepack]
Marilyn Chase, The Barbary Plague, 3106
Marilyn Chase, The Barbary Plague, 107216

John Barry, The Great Influenza, 1-166

John Barry, The Great Influenza, 169296

John Barry, The Great Influenza, 299461


Camus, The Plague, 1-164
Camus, The Plague, 167-308


[assignment TBA]
Shilts, And the Band Played On, xxi-233
[prologue, chapters 1-23]

Shilts, And the Band Played On, 405503, 585-605 [chapters 40-50, 58-59]


[assignment TBA]
final paper research
Verghese, My Own Country, chapters 1-10
7
(pp. 5-199)
Nov. 29
Dec. 4
AIDS Again
Run For Your
Lives!
Dec. 6
Be Very, Very
Afraid
F Dec.
15
Final Paper Due

Verghese, My Own Country, chapters 1931
(pp. 311-429)

Richard Preston, “West Nile Mystery”
[coursepack]


Siegel, False Alarm, 1-104
Siegel, False Alarm, 107-216