Description
Book SynopsisConsiders the Victorian anti-vaccination movement in the context of debates over citizenship, parental rights, class politics, the significance of bodily integrity, the control of contagious disease, and state access to the bodies of both adult and infant subjects
Trade Review“All too often the large-scale resistance to compulsory vaccination in England has been treated as a quaint case study in ‘anti-modern’ or ‘irrational’ opposition to scientific progress. Nadja Durbach has made a key contribution to modern British history in particular and to the analysis of class culture more generally by rescuing this resistance to state medicine from what E. P. Thompson memorably termed ‘the enormous condescension of posterity.’”—George Behlmer, author of
Friends of the Family: The English Home and Its Guardians, 1850–1940“This fascinating book uses the anti-vaccination movement to illuminate our understanding of the major themes in nineteenth-century British history: the nature of liberalism, class tensions, and resistance to state intervention. Beautifully written, it brings the movement to life.”—Anna Clark, author of
Scandal: The Sexual Politics of the British Constitution“
Bodily Matters is a sophisticated and persuasive project; it evokes timely questions on the body and the state and suggests some thought-provoking answers. The book will certainly be of value to any of us interested in the sociology of medicine, the sociology of the body, social movements, and British history.” -- Sigal Gooldin * American Journal of Sociology *
“Durbach's account of the anti-vaccination movement is clearly and forcefully written and provides an authoritative survey of Victorian debates about the role of the state in disease prevention.
Bodily Matters will engage anyone interested in public health and the history of epidemiology, and post–9/11 fears about bioterrorism and the looming threat of a bird flu pandemic may broaden the audience for this text.”
-- Solveig C. Robinson * Perspectives in Biology and Medicine *
“Nadja Durbach’s
Bodily Matters is a rigorously researched and sensitive account of antivaccinationism in Victorian and Edwardian England that combines the insights of the history of medicine, political history, and the social and cultural histories of class and gender.” -- Ian Burney * Journal of Modern History *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. The Parliamentary Lancet 13
2. Fighting the “Babies’ Battle” 37
3. Populism, Citizenship, and the Politics of Victorian Liberalism 69
4. The Body Politics of Class Formation 91
5. Vampires, Vivisectors, and the Victorian Body 113
6. Germs, Dirt, and the Constitution 150
7. Class, Gender, and the Conscientious Objector 171
Conclusion 199
Notes 209
Bibliography 243
Index 269
