DANGEROUS LIAISONS. A Social History of Venereal Disease in Twentieth-Century Scotland. (Clio Medica/The Wellcome Institute Series in the History of Medicine 57) - Softcover

DAVIDSON, Roger

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9042006188 ISBN 13: 9789042006188

Publisher: Brill Rodopi, 2000

Synopsis

This book explores the role of Venereal Disease in shaping perceptions of sexuality in twentieth-century Scotland, and in defining the response of the Modern State to patterns of sexual behaviour. It examines how civic, medical and political authorities reacted to the ‘Hideous Scourge' in times of peace and war and how far policy was informed by anxieties surrounding social change and public morality as much as by the incidence of disease and developments in medical knowledge. It focuses in particular on the moral assumptions underpinning epidemiological debate, and the various dimensions of stigmatisation and control within VD discourse, including gender, generation and class. This study also highlights the protracted campaign in Scotland for legal controls over those suffering from VD, and the enduring problem, resurrected by the threat of HIV and AIDS, of balancing the demands of public health against those of civil liberties in the regulation of ‘dangerous sexualities'.

About this title

Review:

"...important book...model for regional studies...a valuable contribution to the...medical history of Scotland...relevant for future studies." -- History, the Journal of the Historical Association, volume 86, number 284, October 2001

"...momentous book ... well ,written..." -- Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, Volume 5, No.2, 2002

About this edition

• Publisher: Brill Rodopi
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 9042006188
• ISBN 13: 9789042006188
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 383