Medicine and Empire

The history of modern medicine is inseparable from the history of imperialism. Medicine and Empire provides an introduction to this shared history – spanning three centuries and covering British, French and Spanish imperial histories in Africa, Asia and America.

Exploring the major developments in European medicine from the seventeenth century to the mid-twentieth century, Pratik Chakrabarti shows that the major developments in European medicine had a colonial counterpart and were closely intertwined with European activities overseas:

- The increasing influence of natural history on medicine
- The growth of European drug markets
- The rise of surgeons in status
- Ideas of race and racism
- Advancements in sanitation and public health
- The expansion of the modern quarantine system
- The emergence of Germ theory and global vaccination campaigns

Drawing on recent scholarship and primary texts, this book narrates a mutually constitutive history in which medicine was both a 'tool' and a product of imperialism, and provides an original, accessible insight into the deep historical roots of the problems that plague global health today.