1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910777779903321

Autore

Snowden Frank M (Frank Martin), <1946->

Titolo

The conquest of malaria [[electronic resource] ] : Italy, 1900-1962 / / Frank M. Snowden

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven, : Yale University Press, c2006

ISBN

1-281-72155-7

9786611721558

0-300-12843-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (1 online resource (viii, 296 p.) ) : ill., map

Disciplina

614.5/32/00945

Soggetti

Malaria - Italy - History - 20th century

Malaria - Treatment - Italy - History - 20th century

Mosquitoes - Control - Italy - History - 20th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 225-286) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Malaria: The "Italian National Disease" -- 2. From Miasma to Mosquito: The Rome School of Malariology -- 3. A Nation Mobilizes -- 4. From Quinine to Women's Rights: Hopes, Illusions, and Victories -- 5. The First World War and Epidemic Disease -- 6. Fascism, Racism, and Littoria -- 7. Creating Disaster: Nazism and Bioterror in the Pontine Marshes -- 8. Fighting Disaster: DDT and Old Weapons -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Glossary -- Select Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

At the outset of the twentieth century, malaria was Italy's major public health problem. It was the cause of low productivity, poverty, and economic backwardness, while it also stunted literacy, limited political participation, and undermined the army. In this book Frank Snowden recounts how Italy became the world center for the development of malariology as a medical discipline and launched the first national campaign to eradicate the disease. Snowden traces the early advances, the setbacks of world wars and Fascist dictatorship, and the final victory against malaria after World War II. He shows how the medical and teaching professions helped educate people in their own self-defense and in the process expanded trade unionism, women's



consciousness, and civil liberties. He also discusses the antimalarial effort under Mussolini's regime and reveals the shocking details of the German army's intentional release of malaria among Italian civilians-the first and only known example of bioterror in twentieth-century Europe. Comprehensive and enlightening, this history offers important lessons for today's global malaria emergency.