| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 104.4

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 104.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Methods/Theory

Andrew Cliff, Peter Haggett, and Matthew Smallman-Raynor. Deciphering Global Epidemics: Analytical Approaches to the Disease Records of World Cities, 1888–1912. (Cambridge Studies in Historical Geography, number 26.) New York: Cambridge University Press. 1998. Pp. xxiii, 469. Cloth $74.95, paper $29.95.

This highly statistical study by Andrew Cliff, Peter Haggett, and Matthew Smallman-Raynor, three geographers who are attempting to discern how infectious diseases operated around the globe between 1888 and 1912, is a yeoman effort, but one that sometimes misses the mark. Using an impressive host of primary and secondary sources that deal with mortality in one hundred global cities, the authors' avowed aim is to stress "the various analytical methods now available for drawing out patterns from [the data], 'deciphering' epidemics." They do succeed in analyzing the death-dealing impact of six diseases (diphtheria, enteric fevers, measles, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, and whooping cough) in spatial and statistical terms. Meanwhile, however, they virtually ignore the critical historical context and basic biological considerations. One can say this is an important contribution to the still thin area of historical epidemiology; it is also an incomplete effort. . . .

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