The Politics of Epidemic: Spain, Disease Management and Hygiene, 1803-1902

Abstract

Utilizing medical manuals, medical records, newspapers, and letters, the history of the management of epidemics from 1803-1902 will be explored. This thesis weaves together and explores the political history of the nineteenth century by analyzing the contribution of doctors and reformers in the management of diseases. This thesis explores the intersection between the construction of a public health system and the implementation of these practices by political actors and physicians. The history of the management of disease is analyzed from the introduction of the mass vaccination campaign, in Spain, in 1803. This thesis first analyzes the development of a public health system focused on prevention. It then challenges the system created by examining how effective these measures were against the multiple waves of cholera to hit Spain. It then addresses the important role reformers had in the late nineteenth century. It was through their efforts that doctors and reformers became explicitly linked to new ideas of citizenship and responsibility. This paper emphasizes both continuity in the importance of health care, but also the transformations in the discourse of public health responsibility. Ultimately, it centers liberalism and an emerging middle class within the discussion of a health policy.