Product Description
An innovative, interdisciplinary study of why leprosy, a disease with a very low level of infection, has repeatedly provoked revulsion and fear. Rod Edmond explores, in particular, how these reactions were refashioned in the modern colonial period. Beginning as a medical history, the book broadens into an examination of how Britain and its colonies responded to the believed spread of leprosy. Across the empire this involved isolating victims of the disease in 'colonies', often on offshore islands. Discussion of the segregation of lepers is then extended to analogous examples of this practice, which, it is argued, has been an essential part of the repertoire of colonialism in the modern period. The book also examines literary representations of leprosy in Romantic, Victorian and twentieth-century writing, and concludes with a discussion of traveller-writers such as R. L. Stevenson and Graham Greene who described and fictionalised their experience of staying in a leper colony. ... Read more

Product Description

While premodern poets and preachers viewed leprosy as a "disease of the soul," physicians in the period understood it to be a "cancer of the whole body." In this innovative study, medical historian Luke Demaitre explores medical and social perspectives on leprosy at a time when judicious diagnosis could spare healthy people from social ostracization and help the afflicted get a license to beg.

Extending his inquiry from the first century to late in the eighteenth century, Demaitre draws on translations of academic treatises and archival records to illuminate the professional standing, knowledge, and conduct of the practitioners who struggled to move popular perceptions of leprosy beyond loathing and pity. He finds that, while not immune to social and cultural perceptions of the leprous as degenerate, and while influenced by their own fears of contagion, premodern physicians moderated society's reactions to leprosy and were dedicated to the well-being of their patients.

Product Description

Angela Ki Che Leung's meticulous study begins with the classical annals of the imperial era, which contain the first descriptions of a feared and stigmatized disorder modern researchers now identify as leprosy. She then tracks the relationship between the disease and China's social and political spheres (theories of contagion prompted community and statewide efforts at segregation); religious traditions (Buddhism and Daoism ascribed redemptive meaning to those suffering from the disease), and evolving medical discourse (Chinese doctors have contested the disease's etiology for centuries). Leprosy even pops up in Chinese folklore, attributing the spread of the contagion to contact with immoral women.

Leung next places the history of leprosy into a global context of colonialism, racial politics, and "imperial danger." A perceived global pandemic in the late nineteenth century seemed to confirm Westerners' fears that Chinese immigration threatened public health. Therefore battling to contain, if not eliminate, the disease became a central mission of the modernizing, state-building projects of the late Qing empire, the nationalist government of the first half of the twentieth century, and the People's Republic of China.

Stamping out the curse of leprosy was the first step toward achieving "hygienic modernity" and erasing the cultural and economic backwardness associated with the disease. Leung's final move connects China's experience with leprosy to a larger history of public health and biomedical regimes of power, exploring the cultural and political implications of China's Sino-Western approach to the disease.

Product Description
One of the most important publications for many years in the fields of medical, religious and social history. Rawcliffe's book completely overhauls our understanding of leprosy and contributes immensely to our knowledge of the English middle ages. This is a fascinating study that will be a seminal work in the history of leprosy for many years to come EHR Set firmly in the medical, religious and cultural milieu of the European Middle Ages, this book is the first serious, comprehensive study of a disease surrounded by misconceptions and prejudices. Even specialists will be surprised to learn that most of our stereotyped ideas about the segregation of medieval lepers originated in the nineteenth century; that leprosy excited a vast range of responses, from admiration to revulsion; that in the later Middle Ages it was diagnosed readily even by laity; that a wide range of treatment was available, that medieval leper hospitals were no more austere than the monasteries on which they were modelled; that the decline of leprosy was not monocausal but implied a complex web of factors - medical, environmental, social and legal. Written with consummate skill, subtlety and rigour, this book will change forever the image of the medieval leper. ... Read more

Product Description
Mysterious and misunderstood, distorted by biblical imagery of disfigurement and uncleanness, Hansen's disease (or leprosy) has all but disappeared from America's consciousness. In Carville, Louisiana, the closed doors of the nation's last center for the treatment of leprosy hold stories of sadness, separation, and even strength in the face of what was once a life-wrenching diagnosis.

Drawn from interviews with living patients and extensive research in the leprosarium's archives, "Carville: Remembering Leprosy in America" tells the stories of former patients at the National Hansen's Disease Center. For over a century, from 1894 until 1999, Carville was the site of the only in-patient hospital in the continental United States for the treatment of Hansen's disease, which is the preferred designation for leprosy.

Patients --- exiled there by law for treatment and for separation from the rest of society --- reveal how they were able to cope with the devastating blow the diagnosis of leprosy dealt them. Leprosy was so frightening and so poorly understood that entire families would suffer and be shunned if one family member contracted the disease. When patients entered Carville, they typically left everything behind, including their legal names and their hopes for the future.

Former patients at Carville give their views of the outside world and of the culture they forged within the treatment center, which included married and individual living quarters, a bar, and even a jail. Those quarantined in the leprosarium created their own Mardi Gras celebrations, their own newspaper, and their own body of honored stories in which fellow sufferers of Hansen's disease prevailed over trauma and ostracism. Through their memories and stories, we see their very human quest for identity and endurance with dignity, humor, and grace. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Fascinating
With a natural wonder for all things morbid and the inner lives of people that struggle, I was curious to know the details about leprosy as a disease and also about the personal details of the people that suffered with it.This book gave enough scientific facts about the disease to quench my curiousity, and also managed to give a personal perspective, delving into the details of the lives of, and even quoting, victims of the disease that lived when leprosy was still misunderstood greatly.I read the entire book, then ordered, "The Colony", a book about a leper colony that existed on an island in Hawaii.I found that book very dry, as it traced the character's lives very factually.It was so much like a history book that I couldn't even make it quite half way through.

Not comprehensive but it's a small book
I have been aware of the Carville facility since I read Betty Martin's "Miracle at Carville" as a child, and was delighted to learn about 10 years ago that at that time, she was still living.The book was very respectful of her privacy, not revealing her real name even though she died in 2002.

It was a superficial history of the facility and its newsletter, "The Star", which probably did more to promote knowledge about this interesting disease than anything else.

A Disappointment

Gaudet's book fails to tell us very much about the day to day lives of Carville's patients. Granted, she does relate stories about the Mardi Gras parade and about sneaking off the grounds (I was surprised by the largely positive reactions of the outside community). But time after time, I would read a passage and want to know more. After finishing the book, I hardly had any more knowledge about Hansen's Disease and the Carville experience than I had before I began reading it.

reflecting on carville
This book deserves a more intensive review than this, but it also deserves to be read,so I will at least share some random reflections on it.Carville is the name of a small community in south Louisiana.It is also a euphemism for the location of the hospital that for more than 100 years treatedpatients with leprosy (preferably called Hansen'sdisease.)As such Carville was a place of mystery and curiosity.Marcia Gaudet's new book ofrecollections takes the mystery out of the place and shows it to be the home of an intensely courageous group of people, stigmatized for their condition but never defeated.The book which has much to offer to the scholar and the lay reader alike records the memories of trauma and grief that Hansen'sdisease patients endured.But the book does not stop with trauma.It relates the formation and growth of a community with its own traditions (escaping through the hole in the fence),celebrations (Mardi Gras) and tall tales.For anyone with even a casual interest in the lives of people in intensely painful situations the book is an inspiration and a must read. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (5)

politics, not medicine
This is a thoroughly researched book, to the point of excruciatingly boring detail, that discusses the social and political implications of leprosy throughout history. There is very little discussion of the medical side of the disease, of which the author doesn't seem to have much grasp - A glaring omission considering that we hear far more than we need to about the personal lives of leading leprosy researchers, celebrity sufferers, and government administrators. There were some bizarre throwaway lines such as "Biblical leprosy was probably a different disease than true leprosy". Huh? I can accept that provided there was some explanation / validation. (which wasn't done). There is no discussion at all about leprosy medical research except for some faint condemnation about the cushy dwellings of researchers in leper colonies compared to the dreadful living conditions of the patients. This is not a book to be taken lightly - it's far too complex, and meandering, for a quick run-through. Read it if you like politics more than medicine. Otherwise, expect to be put to sleep (as I was, repeatedly).

Fascinating Book
There have been many books written about Leprosy a.k.a. Hansen's Disease over the years.Mr. Gould appears to have read many of the books about all the interesting people afflicted with the disease and the caretakers of people with Hansen's Disease over the past couple hundred years. A Disease Apart: Leprosy in the Modern World seems to be a condensed version of those many books broken down by chapter. This book is a great read for history buffs and anyone who thinks they might be interested in reading about Leprosy for the first time.

Possibly the best book on the disease history.
This book is far and away the best look at the history of the disease, colonies, and treatment, out there. On top of being extremely informative, it is not a dry read in the least bit. I finished it in a day. I particularly enjoyed the time taken to deal with Carville, it's founding and patients, particularly the amazing Stanley Stein. If a person has any interest in the disease at all, this book needs to be on their shelf.

Leprosy: not just a bygone disease
Hear the world 'leprosy' and you tend to think of bygone eras and diseases no longer threatening modern societies - but A DISEASE APART: LEPROSY IN THE MODERN WORLD shows otherwise, tracing the history of leprosy and surveying the legends, realities, and medical concerns surrounding the disease. From pioneers of early treatments and diagnosis to local epidemics of leprosy, chapters survey the controversies, research, and health risks which have surrounded leprosy. Treatments for cases caught early have been in effect since the 1950s - but there's still lots of misunderstanding and myth surrounding leprosy - and thus the need for this detailed medical history.

A Special Disease
Everyone knows what you mean if you refer to someone as a leper: someone others shun.There are worse diseases, more painful ones, more numerous ones, and many more contagious ones, but leprosy was a horror of its own.This was largely because leprosy was visible; blotchy skin, bloated face, extremities dissolving away.Lepers had more problems in that they lost their sight, but more particularly they lost their sense of touch, and with it the capacity to feel pain, the blessing in disguise that protects us from the world's blows.It is a terrible disease, but the horror it inspired in others made it unique.In _A Disease Apart: Leprosy in the Modern World_ (St. Martin's Press), Tony Gould shows that in the past couple of hundred years, the disease has lost its capacity to shock.It still exists, but there are good treatments and we know that sufferers need not be objects of fear or horror, and that they are certainly not victims of some sort of curse from gods of any type.Gould has not pointedly drawn comparisons to AIDS in our own time, but the similar arc of social reaction to the disease is clear.

Much of what people know about leprosy comes from the Bible, and it certainly inspired the missionaries in their efforts against the disease, but probably those missionaries were fighting a different one than that known in Old Testament times and locales.The involvement of Christianity by means of missionaries to sufferers is a theme throughout this book.One victim himself wrote, "There is no mission to the tubercular, no mission to the diabetics, no mission to syphilitics.... there seems to be some special reward for working with 'lepers'."Such missions are not now fashionable, and we know missionaries are not an unalloyed force for good.Gould has focused in on one region after another to tell histories that all include the cruel management of sufferers and the eventual freeing of them to more enlightened ways.Perhaps the most famous is Father Damien, the Belgian priest who ministered to lepers in Hawaii from 1873 to his death from leprosy in 1889.An American Protestant missionary met him there, and wrote a private posthumous letter critical of Father Damien ("He was not a pure man in his relations with women, and the leprosy of which he died should be attributed to his vices and carelessness.") which the recipient published.Damien's cause was taken up by another previous visitor to Molokai, none other than Robert Louis Stevenson.The controversy only swelled interest in the colony and made Damien a martyr and a figurehead for fundraising.

Leper colonies were not only in far away, impoverished places full of people with dark skin.The American version was in a lovely place, if a little swampy, called Carville, Louisiana.Huge oaks, songbirds, and gorgeous flowering trees made it a place of inspiring natural beauty."It should have been a tonic to the soul.Except that we were fenced in."So wrote Stanley Stein, a Jewish pharmacist from Texas who edited the patients' publication _The Star_.He was the bane of the U.S. Public Health Service, always campaigning in a spirited American fashion for more rights.The campaign worked, as gradually patients were allowed more time on the outside, and the fences that had held them were taken down.Stein became a star himself, touring the country and hobnobbing with the likes of Tallulah Bankhead.He died in 1967, but Carville still exists as does his paper.The facility was formally closed as a leprosarium in 1999, but some with the disease still live there; having been isolated all their lives, they fear trying to live in the outside world, although they could do so with which much less stigma due to Stein's campaign.Gould shows that this has been the pattern in one locale after another as scientific evaluation of leprosy as a disease has shown that it isn't anything more than a disease, and not a very dangerous one at that, especially now.There is a contradiction, though, in that sufferers and healers who insist that it is just a disease are taking away its special status.The special status may have been founded on fear, but take it away and the focus on treatment and rehabilitation may be lost, especially in poor countries with other diseases to fight.It is one of the many paradoxes in an engaging and moving book. ... Read more

Product Description
This autobiography is of an elder statesman in the field of reconstructive surgery, Paul Brand. The son of missionary doctors in India, he became acquainted with leprosy and its appalling effects in his early life. He trained and qualified in London, and became one of the world's leading leprosy authorities. He was awarded a CBE for his pioneering work. Now retired and living in North America, he reflects on his career. The title refers to pain and the relentless efforts of people to avoid it - and yet, it is the one gift that would have transformed for the better the lives of Dr Brand's leprosy patients, preventing further damage to affected limbs. The book provides insights into the life-giving role that pain plays in people's lives. Paul Brand is the co-author of "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made". Philip Yancey is the author of "Where is God When it Hurts". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Should be a must-read
If you are interested in being a doctor, or if you are suffering
from pain this book can be invaluable.
I am neither a doctor, nor suffering from pain, but I thoroughly
enjoyed the autobiography of this surgeon.
I can't recommend this book enough. ... Read more

Product Description
Cloth Edition. A compelling account of leprosy in colonial and post-colonial Mali. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Social history as it ought to be done
Eric Silla's social history of leprosy (a.k.a. Hansen's disease) in Mali draws the reader into a penetrating exploration not just of a disease but of the regimes of stigma, treatment, and solidarity that have been constructed around it.The author makes use of his own interviews with dozens of subjects--those afflicted with Hansen's disease, as well as healers from both African and European medical traditions--to sketch a detailed picture of the effects this illness has had on a society at large.

These firsthand accounts are frank and often gripping, helping the reader to understand (insofar as it is possible) the depth of suffering caused not so much by the disease itself as by the manifold, and almost entirely unnecessary, social stigma that accompany it.By reinforcing his interviews with documentary evidence from French colonial clinics, leprosariums, and other sources, the author puts his subjects' stories in wider perspective.He even taps into centuries-old Arabic manuscripts for insight into the status and conditions of lepers in pre-colonial Mali.

Silla's obvious familiarity with many aspects of Malian society shows through his writing, his references to local language, proverbs, and history.This is the way social histories ought to be done, putting their primary subjects and their own words first whenever possible, making judicious use of historical documents, and keeping theory in the background where it belongs."People Are Not the Same" is one of those rare studies which manages to enlighten without indulging either in obscurantist analysis or oversimplification. ... Read more

Product Description
Lying in a hospital bed, José P. Ramirez, Jr. (b. 1948) almost lost everything because of a misunderstood disease. When the health department doctor gave him the Handbook for Persons with Leprosy, Ramirez learned his fate. Such a diagnosis in 1968 meant exile and hospitalization in the only leprosarium in the continental United States--Carville, Louisiana, 750 miles from his home in Laredo, Texas.

In Squint: My Journey with Leprosy, Ramirez recalls being taken from his family in a hearse and thrown into a world filled with fear. He and his loved ones struggled against the stigma associated with the term "leper" and against beliefs that the disease was a punishment from God, that his illness was highly communicable, and that persons with Hansen's disease had to be banished from their communities.

His disease not only meant separation from the girlfriend who would later become his wife, but also a derailment of all life's goals. In his struggle Ramirez overcame barriers both real and imagined and eventually became an international advocate on behalf of persons with disabilities. In Squint, titled for the sliver of a window through which persons with leprosy in medieval times were allowed to view Mass but not participate, Ramirez tells a story of love and perseverance over incredible odds.

José P. Ramirez, Jr., is a social worker in Houston, Texas. He has written articles about Hansen's disease for the Houston Chronicle, the Star Magazine, the National Association of Social Workers Newsletter, and other publications. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Humbling
This is an awesome book.I had no idea that leprosy was not extremely contangious.

so much potential, so dissappointing
It is obvious that Mr. Ramirez has spent a life of challenge - fighting prejudice, ignorance and the kind of physical pain few of us can even imagine.He is to be congratulated for his life's work and his overcoming the many challenges of this disease.Never-the-less he is not to be congratulated on a well-written book.Redundancies, miss-use of punctuation, and a distracting use of Mexican phrases where they have no impact lead me to not be sympathetic but rather to feel duped into reading this book.I hope that there is a second edition of this book with a ghost writer or at least an editor to catch such glaring mistakes as, "It must have been weeks before I saw Big John's face..." to , in less then a page, "[Big John] smiled and nodded."I use the quotation marks with some nervousness as Mr. Ramirez has used a life's quota of them already.It is mostly a simple disappointment to not have had so important a life expressed in as well a written book as it deserves.

Layered
Although the title refers only to the author's experience with Hansen's Disease, the book gives the reader more - a window into Mexican-American culture of a certain era, more specifically, a Mexican-American culture in Laredo, TX; an as-it-unfolds narrative of a minority culture - and the majority culture around it - as they transition re: gender roles and in diversity awareness, whether that diversity has to do with culture, race or disease; a truly romantic love story between him and his wife; and a story of complicated relationships between parents and children.

While the book isn't an on-the-edge-of-your-seat page-turner, the author tells his stories well. I felt engaged throughout the book. Occasionally, I got lost in the chronology, but I found that the chronology wasn't all that relevant to the story, anyway, so this wasn't an irritant.

Overall, the book gives the reader more than it promises in the title.

A potentially interesting story, horribly written
When I read a review of this book in my local paper, my interest was piqued. In fact, I ordered several copies and selected this book for my book club. Although Mr. Ramirez is a very sympathetic character, and I commend his courage and strength in telling his story (and his tireless advocacy for persons with Hansen's disease), I was deeply disappointed in the book. His seemingly random use of quotation marks and his over-use of Spanish in the text (and, mind you,I speak Spanish) was a constant distraction.Mr. Ramirez' story has great potential, but the combination of poor writing and non-existent editing make for a disappointing read.

Mesmerizing
I could not put this book down. I enjoyed reading it as much for the main story - about Jose Ramirez' journey - as about his family and the times they shared. Mr. Ramirez is a good story teller - he describes his feelings and thoughts in a way that make the reader feel as if they are right there with him.Not only is Mr. Ramirez a strong person for having made his journey, but he is brave for being willing to share the most intimate details.Thanks for writing this book and sharing your story. ... Read more

Product Description
By comparing institutions in Hawai'i and Louisiana designed to incarcerate individuals with a highly stigmatized disease, Colonizing Leprosy provides an innovative study of the complex relationship between U.S. imperialism and public health policy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Focusing on the Kalaupapa Settlement in Moloka'i and the U.S. National Leprosarium in Carville, Michelle Moran shows not only how public health policy emerged as a tool of empire in America's colonies, but also how imperial ideologies and racial attitudes shaped practices at home. ... Read more

Product Description
In many cultures, leprosy elicits fear, stigma, and misunderstanding. Historically, people affected by leprosy were banished or isolated from the rest of society. Although the worldwide incidence of leprosy has declined markedly over the past quarter century with the advent of new multidrug therapies, developing nations are still encountering a high number of cases.
In An Uncertain Cure, Cassandra White goes deep into the shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro to give a riveting account of the contemporary leprosy experience among poor and working class Brazilians. In this ethnographic treatment of leprosy sufferers, White exposes the web of historical, socioeconomic, religious, and political forces that complicate the path to wellness and perpetuate high rates of infection. Drawing on nearly ten years of research, White shows how anthropological research can contribute to more effective treatment of chronic infectious diseases around the world. ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Product Description
Presents information about leprosy from a historical perspective, including its spread, its treatment, and its future. ... Read more

Product Description
It is a condition shrouded in mystery, legend, religious fanaticism and centuries of vilification of its sufferers around the world. By the sheer accident of mycobacterial infection, its sufferers have been condemned to exile, imprisonment and even the imputation of moral taint, as if the illness itself were a punishment. Still today, leprosy remains a mysterious condition, the very word conjuring up vivid associations, both metaphorical and real. Through the lives of individual men and women: intrepid doctors, ubiquitous missionaries and a vast spectrum of patients, Tony Gould traces the mysterious history of this disease apart. From Father Damien to Robert Louis Stevenson, the personalities met on his journey are remarkable and their stories unfold against the backgrounds of Norway, Hawaii, the Philippines, Japan, South Africa, Nigeria, Nepal and Louisiana. Although since the l950s there has at last existed a class of drugs called sulphones which cure cases caught early and even arrest more advanced cases, leprosy remains a subject about which many people have unanswered questions.In his superb and enlightened book, Tony Gould throws light into the shadows and eloquently enriches our understanding. ... Read more

Product Description
Designed to bridge the gaps between basic laboratory scientific investigations into leprosy and the field application of this information, the second edition of this text presents aspects of clinical, epidemiological, rehabilitative, historical, descriptive and pathologic control medicine. ... Read more