Book ID: CBB541998082

Merchants of Medicines: The Commerce and Coercion of Health in Britain’s Long Eighteenth Century (2020)

unapi

Dorner, Zachary (Author)


University of Chicago Press


Publication Date: 2020
Physical Details: 280
Language: English

The period from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth century—the so-called long eighteenth century of English history—was a time of profound global change, marked by the expansion of intercontinental empires, long-distance trade, and human enslavement. It was also the moment when medicines, previously produced locally and in small batches, became global products. As greater numbers of British subjects struggled to survive overseas, more medicines than ever were manufactured and exported to help them. Most historical accounts, however, obscure the medicine trade’s dependence on slave labor, plantation agriculture, and colonial warfare. In Merchants of Medicines, Zachary Dorner follows the earliest industrial pharmaceuticals from their manufacture in the United Kingdom, across trade routes, and to the edges of empire, telling a story of what medicines were, what they did, and what they meant. He brings to life business, medical, and government records to evoke a vibrant early modern world of London laboratories, Caribbean estates, South Asian factories, New England timber camps, and ships at sea. In these settings, medicines were produced, distributed, and consumed in new ways to help confront challenges of distance, labor, and authority in colonial territories. Merchants of Medicines offers a new history of economic and medical development across early America, Britain, and South Asia, revealing the unsettlingly close ties among medicine, finance, warfare, and slavery that changed people’s expectations of their health and their bodies.

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Reviewed By

Review Patricia Fara (2021) Review of "Merchants of Medicines: The Commerce and Coercion of Health in Britain’s Long Eighteenth Century". British Journal for the History of Science (pp. 531-532). unapi

Review Pratik Chakrabarti (2022) Review of "Merchants of Medicines: The Commerce and Coercion of Health in Britain’s Long Eighteenth Century". Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (pp. 61-63). unapi

Review Leonard Smith (2022) Review of "Merchants of Medicines: The Commerce and Coercion of Health in Britain’s Long Eighteenth Century". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 440-441). unapi

Review Barbara Di Gennaro Splendore (2022) Review of "Merchants of Medicines: The Commerce and Coercion of Health in Britain’s Long Eighteenth Century". Ambix: Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (pp. 84-85). unapi

Review Anna Winterbottom (2021) Review of "Merchants of Medicines: The Commerce and Coercion of Health in Britain’s Long Eighteenth Century". American Historical Review (pp. 1241-1243). unapi

Review Suman Seth (2021) Review of "Merchants of Medicines: The Commerce and Coercion of Health in Britain’s Long Eighteenth Century". Journal of Interdisciplinary History (pp. 269-271). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB541998082/

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Authors & Contributors
Vicentini, Chiara Beatrice
Harrison, Mark
Pithavadian, Rashmi
Mares, Donatella
Vannucci, Laura
Polónia, Amélia
Concepts
Medicine
Pharmacy
Great Britain, colonies
Globalization; internationalization
Health
Cross-cultural interaction; cultural influence
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
17th century
20th century
16th century
20th century, early
Places
Italy
Great Britain
Padua (Italy)
Germany
India
England
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