Bala and Viljoen have edited and contributed to a collection of well-chosen essays analyzing the impact of contagious disease on colonial societies…. three threads applicable to European imperialism at large emerge. First, the epidemics that occurred were the products of European agency. Contagious diseases appeared in the regions marked by European trade, settlement, and the requisition of labor. Second, the epidemics aggravated existing divisions in colonial societies. The common experience of death and disruption did not bring settlers and Indigenes together, but rather fostered suspicion and contention. In the examples presented, both the colonizers and Indigenous peoples invoked their own healers and remedies, while the European administrators stood aloof as they imposed quarantine and sanitation measures. Third, the epidemics allowed Europeans to regard the bodies of the Indigenes as reservoirs of contagion, a view that facilitated the construction of hierarchical and parallel colonial societies. Taken together, the essays illustrate a needed focus on the historical role played by contagious diseases in the progress and manifestations of European imperialism. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students and faculty.
