| HB-281904-22 | Research Programs: Awards for Faculty | Cindy Ermus | The Great Plague Scare of 1720: Disaster and Society in the Early Modern World | 1/1/2022 - 12/31/2022 | $60,000.00 | Cindy | | Ermus | | | | University of Nebraska, Lincoln | San Antonio | TX | 78249-1644 | USA | 2021 | European History | Awards for Faculty | Research Programs | 60000 | 0 | 60000 | 0 | Writing and researching the history of a plague epidemic in southern France (1720-1722), tracing its impact on global trade and the development of early modern public health policy.
From 1720 to 1722, the French region of Provence and surrounding areas experienced one of the last major epidemics of plague to strike Western Europe. The Plague of Provence was a major disaster that left in its wake as many as 126,000 deaths, as well as new understandings about the nature of disaster and disease and how to best manage their threat. While emergency measures in France and surrounding states successfully prevented the infection from spreading beyond Provence, the social, commercial, and diplomatic effects of the epidemic extended across Europe and to the colonies in the Americas and Asia. My book is thus a transnational study that explores the responses to this biological threat in some of the foremost port cities of the 18th-century world. In this way, my study reveals how a crisis in one part of the globe can yet transcend geographic and temporal boundaries to influence society, politics, and public health policy in regions far removed from the epicenter of disaster. |