| Review | Journal of Social History, 39.4

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the Journal of Social History online. About 195 words from this article are provided below; about 695 words remain.

If you are an individual subscriber to the Journal of Social History, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a subscriber to the Journal of Social History, you can:: • subscribe here.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of Social History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to the journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Review | Journal of Social History, 39.4 | The History Cooperative

REVIEWS

Venereal Disease Hospitals and the Urban Poor: London's "Foul Wards," 1600–1800. By Kevin P. Siena (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2004. Pp. 367).

This is a very significant contribution to our understanding of the relationship among poverty, gender and social welfare in early modern London. It fills in some major gaps in our knowledge about London's VD institutions, and provides a clear narrative of the changing basis of that provision up to the institutional and ideological watershed of the 1780s. In short, it is an exemplary piece of research, and clearly the fruit of countless hours in the archives. But it also asks why and how London's poor sought help with their afflictions, what they were prepared to accept, and what steps they took to try to secure and control their treatment. Siena's ambitions here extend to the attempt to recover patients' own experience of illness and healthcare; and he has succeeded to a remarkable extent in conveying the desperate human costs of the `foul disease'. This is a book then that is marked not only by erudition and sound scholarship but also by humanity and empathy. It is a major achievement.

. . .

There are about 695 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.