Quarantinism and Sanitarism as Strategies for Social Order’s Management and Epidemic Control in 19th-Century Europe

The history of social order’s management and epidemic control in nineteenth-century Europe provides a wealth of evidence for understanding how and why different countries responded to the challenges of dangerous infectious diseases. The two most significant preventive strategies used in the nineteenth century were quarantinism, which consists in limiting active economic activities, and sanitarism, which involves improving the sanitary conditions of the population. In 1947, the German physician and medical historian Erwin Ackerknecht, for the first time analyzed these strategies and thus initiated a discussion of the determinants of medical knowledge and public health. This debate is still ongoing and has been reinvigorated in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Familiarity with some of the points made in that debate may be very useful today, as it will not only give a fuller impression of how some areas of historical science have developed, but also shed new light on the question of how humanitarians make their judgments about such a significant area as the field of public health. The article examines three plots: 1) the explanatory model of quarantinism and sanitarism proposed by Ackerknecht, 2) use of his model by a new generation of scholars who entered this debate in the last quarter of the twentieth century, and 3) the experience of reinterpreting this model to reflect new approaches, in particular the expansive model proposed by Peter Baldwin.

Keywords

Europe, epidemics, social order, history of public health, quarantinism, sanitarism, Erwin Ackerknecht, Peter Baldwin

Received

24.03.2022

Publication date

07.11.2022

Number of characters

41692

Cite

GOST	Mikhel D. Quarantinism and Sanitarism as Strategies for Social Order’s Management and Epidemic Control in 19th-Century Europe // ISTORIYA – 2022. – V. 13. – Issue 9 (119) [Electronic resource]. URL: https://history.jes.su/S207987840022919-9-1 (circulation date: 04.05.2024). DOI: 10.18254/S207987840022919-9
MLA	Mikhel, Dmitry "Quarantinism and Sanitarism as Strategies for Social Order’s Management and Epidemic Control in 19th-Century Europe." ISTORIYA 13.9 (119) (2022) DOI: 10.18254/S207987840022919-9
APA	Mikhel D. (2022). Quarantinism and Sanitarism as Strategies for Social Order’s Management and Epidemic Control in 19th-Century Europe. ISTORIYA 13(9 (119)) DOI: 10.18254/S207987840022919-9

100 rub.

When subscribing to an article or issue, the user can download PDF, evaluate the publication or contact the author. Need to register.

Number of purchasers: 0, views: 170

Readers community rating: votes 0

1. Mikhel' D. V., Mikhel' I. V. Pandemiya COVID-19 kak global'nyj krizis: vzglyad aziatskikh ehkspertov // Rossiya i sovremennyj mir. 2022. № 2 (115). S. 67—84.

2. Mikhel' D. V. Sotsial'naya istoriya meditsiny: stanovlenie i problematika // Zhurnal issledovanij sotsial'noj politiki. 2009. T. 7. № 3. S. 295—312.

3. Mikhel' D. V., Mikhel' I. V. Ehpidemii i istoriya: raznoobrazie podkhodov k predmetu // Novaya i novejshaya istoriya. 2021. № 6. S. 5—21.

4. Fuko M. Nadzirat' i nakazyvat'. Rozhdenie tyur'my. M.: Ad Marginem, 1999.

5. Ackerknecht E. H. Anticontagionism between 1821 and 1867 // International Journal of Epidemiology. 2009. Vol. 38 (1). P. 7—21.

6. Baldwin P. Contagion and the State in Europe, 1830—1930. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

7. Cipolla C. Cristofano and the Plague: A Study in the History of Public Health in the Age of Galileo. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973.

8. Cipolla C. Miasma and Disease: Public Health and the Environment in the Pre-Industrial Age. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.

9. Cooter R. Anticontagionism and History’s Medical Record // Cooter R., Stein C. (eds.) Writing History in the Age of Biomedicine. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013. P. 41—63.

10. Hamlin C. Commentary: Ackerknecht and “Anticontagionism”: A Tale of Two Dichotomies // International Journal of Epidemiology. 2009. Vol. 38 (1). P. 22—27.

11. Heaman E. A. The Rise and Fall of Anticontagionism in France // Canadian Bulletin of Medical History. 1995. Vol. 12 (1). P. 3—25.

12. Kearns G. Private Property and Public Health Reform in England, 1830—1870 // Social Science and Medicine. 1988. Vol. 26 (1). P. 187—199.

13. Morris R. J. Cholera 1832: The Social Response to an Epidemic. N. Y.: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1976.

14. Rosen G. A History of Public Health. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.

15. Rosenberg C. E. Erwin H. Ackerknecht, Social Medicine, and the History of Medicine // Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 2007. Vol. 81 (3). P. 511—532.

16. Rosenberg C. E. Commentary: Epidemiology in Context // International Journal of Epidemiology. 2009. Vol. 38 (1). P. 28—30.

17. Stern A. M., Markel H. Commentary: Disease Etiology and Political Ideology: Revisiting Erwin H. Ackerknecht’s Classic 1948 Essay “Anticontagionism between 1821 and 1867” // International Journal of Epidemiology. 2009. Vol. 38 (1). P. 31—33.

18. Watts S. Epidemics and History: Disease, Power and Imperialism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.