|
Secret Judgments of God
Old World Disease in Colonial Spanish America
By Noble David Cook, W. George Lovell
Volume 205 in the Civilization of the American Indian Series
In the wake of European expansion, disease outbreaks in the New World caused the greatest loss of life known to history. Post-contact Native American inhabitants succumbed in staggering numbers to maladies such as smallpox, measles, influenza, and typhus, against which they had no immunity. A collection of case studies by historians, geographers, and anthropologists, "Secret Judgments of God" discusses how diseases with Old World origins devastated vulnerable native populations throughout Spanish America. In their preface to the paperback edition, the editors discuss the ongoing, often heated debate about contact population history.
"No single author or discipline could have produced a work of such depth and diversity. A judicious and balanced work, and model of interdisciplinary cooperation. . . . [It represents] a substantial advance in our knowledge."--Donald B. Cooper, American Historical Review
"An insightful collection [and] a significant and welcomed synthesis."--Daniel Reff, Ethnohistory
printer-friendly version
|
