Disease and Society in Premodern England

This book makes use of extensive primary source material such as chronicles, legal records, and medical treatises as well as appropriate secondary works drawn from historical and scientific scholarship, providing students with a comprehensive overview of disease in England. It examines how infectious diseases such as plague, syphilis, or the English Sweat and everyday medical issues, such as dysentery, affected people and how/why they spread. Enabling students to see the link between disease and society. This book examines how people tried to cope with disease in a variety of ways, such as improvements in hygiene and provides comparisons with present issues. Allowing students to see the differences and similarities with the social reaction to and ways people dealt with disease in the past and now.