Special Episode: Dr. Olivia Weisser & The Dreaded Pox

About this episode

Dr. Olivia Weisser discusses her book on the history of syphilis in early modern London.

In a time when smallpox, tuberculosis, measles, and typhus ran rampant through the streets of London, there was another disease that instilled even more fear than these other killers: syphilis. So feared and so stigmatized was syphilis that it was sometimes called “the secret disease.” A diagnosis would not only sentence you to a drawn-out and painful illness possibly resulting in death, it also labeled you as an outcast and not fit for polite company. Skyrocketing infection rates drove a corresponding rise in syphilis “cures” and an increasingly desperate public. In this TPWKY book club episode,  Dr. Olivia Weisser , associate professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Boston joins me to discuss her recent book The Dreaded Pox: Sex and Disease in Early Modern London . She transports readers to the hidden shops and stalls that promised a remedy to this feared disease, to the courthouses where a syphilis infection was an important piece of evidence, and to the country houses that held recipe books for those who could not purchase a cure. Tune in for a fascinating glimpse into a time and place where morality, sex, and disease were so…

People in this episode

Host: unknown

Guest: Dr. Olivia Weisser

Topics covered

• syphilis
• disease
• history
• London
• public health
• morality
• sex

Keywords

• syphilis
• smallpox
• tuberculosis
• measles
• typhus
• disease history
• public health
• London

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Massachusetts, Boston

Books & works: The Dreaded Pox: Sex and Disease in Early Modern London

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