Naples in the Time of Cholera 1884-1911

About this book

This is a medical and social history of Italys largest city during the cholera epidemics of 1884 and 1910-11. It explores the factors that exposed Naples to risk; it examines such popular responses as social hysteria riots and religiosity; and it traces therapeutic strategies. This book is the first extended study of cholera in modern Italy; it sets Naples in a comparative international framework and relates the disease to larger historical issues such as the nature of liberal statecraft the "southern question " mass emigration organized crime and the medical profession.