Naples in the time of cholera, 1884-1911 /
Frank M. Snowden.
- Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1995.
- 1 online resource (xvi, 478 pages) : maps
Includes bibliographical references (pages 448-462) and index.
Glossary of Italian and Neapolitan terms -- Part I: Sanitary anxieties. 1. A city at risk -- Part II: The public epidemic of 1884. 2. From Provence to the Bay of Naples ; 3. Death in Naples, 1884 ; 4. Survival and recovery -- Part III: Risanamento and miasma. 5. Rebuilding : medicine and politics -- Part IV: The secret epidemic of 1910-19116. The return of cholera: 1910 ; 7. Concealment and crisis : 1911 -- Conclusion: Neapolitan cholera and Italian politics -- Appendix.
This 1995 book is a medical and social history of Italy's 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. Cholera also became a metaphor for discontent with the regime: the 1884 outbreak was a national issue which led to the rebuilding of the city amidst widespread corruption. The book sets Naples in a comparative international framework; the disease is also related to larger historical issues, such as the nature of liberal statecraft, the 'Southern Question', mass emigration, organised crime, urban renewal, and the medical profession.