Thomas A. Apel. Feverish Bodies, Enlightened Minds

In Feverish Bodies, Enlightened Minds: Science and the Yellow Fever Controversy in the Early American Republic, Thomas A. Apel examines the debates over yellow fever in order to illuminate the character of scientific inquiry in the early American republic. He reveals how the pressing question of what causes yellow fever got resolved (incorrectly, as it would turn out) during a period when intellectual inquiry was a “gentlemanly pursuit” bereft of formal standards. By recounting this history of ignorance and the urgent uncertainty that accompanied it, Apel not only “opens an ideal window onto the contours of natural inquiry in the early republic” (5) but also tells us something crucial about knowledge disputes in general, namely that scientific inquiry can be carried in unexpected directions by the cross-currents of culture writ large. Using yellow fever as a springboard for understanding American culture, this book is a worthy addition to the rich tradition of historical scholarship on U.S. epidemics by the likes of Edwin Ackernecht, Howard Markel, and Charles E. Rosenberg.

Epistemology · Ideal (ethics) · Ignorance · Order (exchange) · Political science · Scholarship · The Republic · Writ · Yellow fever · Classics · Diverse Historical and Scientific Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · History of Science and Medicine · Law · Philosophy