Author Description

In 1892 the city of Hamburg was hit by one of the greatest urban disasters of the century: a cholera epidemic that within six weeks left ten thousand people dead and many more suffering the appalling symptoms of this terrible disease. Drawing on a mass of detailed source material, this book presents a graphic portrayal of a great European city in the throes of a major social and political crisis. In seeking to discover why Hamburg alone was struck by an epidemic of such proportions, Evans ushers readers into the often unfamiliar terrain of environmental pollution, social inequality, municipal administration, and medical science in 19th-century Europe and offers a fresh look at the problems generated by urban growth and social change in the age of industrialization.