Books & ideas

Life and Survival in Wuhan

Simeng Wang — 2020-12-28T08:00:00Z

This article presents a portrait of the city of Wuhan, which has been at the center of the news since the appearance of Covid-19, and discusses the experience of lockdown as recounted by its ordinary inhabitants, mixing suffering, despair, indignation and spirit of solidarity.

Of Viruses and Men

Cynthia Colmellere — 2020-10-26T08:00:00Z

At the frontiers of epidemiology and social history, Delphine Berdah compares the very different health policies implemented in France and the United Kingdom in the fight against tuberculosis and foot-and-mouth disease.

A Flu that Left a Hundred Million Dead

Étienne Forestier-Peyrat — 2020-05-28T07:00:00Z

Caught between the great epidemics of the past and the horrors of the world war, the 1918-1919 flu has long struggled to be recognized as a major health disaster. Reactions to the current epidemic testify to the persistence of denial in the face of troubling outbreaks of disease.

Working in China in the Covid-19 Era

2020-05-25T07:00:00Z

China managed to maintain a certain amount of economic activity during the lockdown, but at what cost and under what conditions? This article highlights the regime's use of the media alongside the political and market logics specific to China.

Faces of the Pandemic

Editorial Team — 2020-04-17T06:00:00Z

We seem to struggle to take the measure of the Covid-19 pandemic. Its onset was sudden, its effects are uncertain and its long term consequences are still unpredictable. Books & Ideas gathers a selection of texts exploring the various facets of epidemics.

Covid-19: Chronicle of an Outbreak Foretold

Philippe Sansonetti — 2020-03-30T07:00:00Z

What are Covid-19 and the coronavirus? What are the parameters, causes and effects of this disease? What are the short and long-term prospects? Infectious disease specialist Philippe Sansonetti explains why the fate of the epidemic is in our hands.

Contagion, a Cultural History

Neil Davie — 2020-03-16T08:00:00Z

Recurring typhus outbreaks among the poor in the 18^th century reinforced the belief that plebeian bodies were in a constant state of putrefaction. Adopting a longue durée approach, Rotten Bodies offers a stimulating study of medical discourse on epidemic disease in the “long” 18^th century.

AIDS & Biocapitalisation

Pierre-Marie David & Gabriel Girard & Vinh-Kim Nguyen — 2015-11-12T08:00:00Z

The end of the AIDS epidemic is not only a public health objective, it is also a project that involves the extension of medications market and an investment in infected bodies. This essay examines the politics of this medicalisation and its risks, with the concept of biocapitalisation.

The International Health System and the Ebola Epidemic

Auriane Guilbaud — 2015-06-08T05:30:00Z

The management of the Ebola epidemic by the international community has revealed the deficiencies of health development aid, as well as long overlooked structural problems. Yet it may also be an opportunity to establish long-term mechanisms of international solidarity and improve the basic health capacities of affected countries.