Leprosy and Colonialism

Snelders provides a needed corrective to the historiography concerning how Western science began to see leprosy as a colonial problem. His monograph is one of very few that search for the racialized roots of leprosy discourse as far back as the eighteenth century. [] Snelderss longue duree study greatly expands historians understanding of leprosy in Suriname as a microcosm of colonialisms racial, social and administrative structures. Kristen Block, University of TennesseeKnoxville, Social History of Medicine, vol 33, no 3, August 2018 Snelderss ambitious book makes an important contribution and adds to our understanding of the history of medicine in the Caribbean and the wider colonial world. Juanita De Barros, Department of History, McMaster University, New West Indian Guide 92 (2018) 293396 'In his detailed and comprehensive history of leprosy care in Surinam, Stephen Snelders highlights several fascinating and unique features of the history of leprosy in this former Dutch colony.' Hans Pols, University of Sydney, Gesnerus: Swiss Journal of the History of Medicine and Sciences, Vol. 76, No. 1 (2019) 'Leprosy and Colonialism is rich in details, informed in historiographical debate, and written in fluid prose. [...] The book will be of use not only to historians of medicine but, more generally, to historians and students of colonialism.' Isis, Journal of the History of Science Society -- .

Stephen Snelders is Research Fellow in the Freudenthal Institute of the Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, The Netherlands -- .

Introduction Part I: Leprosy in a slave society 1. The making of a colonial disease in the eighteenth century 2. A policy of Great Confinement, 1815-1863 3. Slaves and medicine: black perspectives 4. Battleground in the jungle: the Batavia leprosy asylum in the age of slavery Part II: Leprosy in a modern colonial state 5. Transformations and discussion, Suriname and the Netherlands, 1863-1890 6. Towards a modern colonial state: reorganizing leprosy care, 1890-1900 7. Developing modern leprosy politics, 1900-1950 8. Colonial medicine and folk beliefs in the modern era 9. Complex microcosms: asylums and treatments, 1900-1950 Conclusion Sources and select bibliography -- .