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Article ID: CBB850147784

History of Pandemics in Southeast Asia: A Return of National Anxieties? (2023)

Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Volume: 114
Issue: S1
Pages: S419-S446

URL: https://isiscb.org/special-issue-on-pandemics/essay.html?essayID=01

DOI: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10.1086/726991

Publication Date: 2023
Edition Details: IsisCB Special Issue: Bibliographic Essays on the History of Pandemics
Language: English

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Between 1983 and 2006 there were two distinct sorts of historical writings on Southeast Asian medical history, with quite different emphases. Some historians focused on the history of medicine in national contexts—a practice that resulted in the neglect of larger socioeconomic factors such as migration—that affected the trajectory of pandemics. At the same time, pursuing a different line of thinking, another group of historians focused on the history of specific diseases from a demographic perspective. These two approaches led to very different conclusions about the nature of epidemic disease and pandemics that have beset the region since the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, regional histories of health are neglected in Southeast Asian medical history in favor of either local, national, or global histories. In this essay, I argue that if historians of global health have forsaken the region in favor of the wider world, Southeast Asian historians have neglected the region in favor of the nation. What is missing in Southeast Asian medical history is a regional perspective that would help understand the ways in which pandemic responses are shaped by colonial, Cold War, or national concerns. Beginning 2019, some historians and political analysts trying to understand global pandemics have adopted a regional approach by treating, as a monolithic group, the ASEAN—the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which is a regional grouping of Southeast Asian member states, established in 1967. By contrast, others explore specific geographic, political, or economic issues that have contributed to either the spread or containment of disease. In this regard, the COVID-19 crisis in Southeast Asia merits historical attention to comprehend the strengths and weaknesses of a regional approach.

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Description Part of a series of bibliographical essays on the history of pandemics and epidemics in the history of science. The link to the essay takes you to the page with the essay, the bibliography, and the entire set of reviews.

Included in

Article Weldon, Stephen P.; Sankaran, Neeraja (2023) Scholarship in the Time of COVID-19: An Introduction to the IsisCB Special Issue on Pandemics. Isis Bibliography of the History of Science (pp. 1-5). unapi

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB850147784/

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