Blog Post 9 (for Thursday, 4\/3)<\/p>\n

In his book \u201cThe Cholera Years\u201d, which I reviewed, Charles Rosenberg demonstrates an interesting meta-narrative about disease and public health in America during the 19^{th<\/sup> century. Reading \u201cThe Cholera Years\u201d helped me realize that the 1832 Cholera epidemic in New York is part of a much bigger story; as a result, I decided it was necessary to narrow down my topic.<\/p>\n}

Almost all of my sources have mentioned a place called the Five Points in some capacity. Today, the Five Points is situated on Worth Street in lower Manhattan, between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. During the 19^{th<\/sup> century, however, this convergence formed the heart of New York City. It was a melting pot inhabited by individuals of various races, religions and nationalities, all of whom struggled to survive in complete destitution.<\/p>\n}

The Five Points played an important role in the 1832 Cholera epidemic, and its experience implicates many of the meta-narrative themes that Rosenberg described. This quagmire of filth and poverty represented a serious threat to the public health of the entire city: it was the perfect incubator for disease. Records from the 1832 epidemic attribute the greatest number of Cholera cases to the Five Points (Rosenberg, 33). I plan to explore the specific ways in which poverty contributed the remarkable virulence there\u2014 shared water sources, unsanitary methods of food preparation, etc. I also plan to describe the social effects of disease in such a densely populated and culturally diverse area.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, I plan to demonstrate how perceptions of the Five Points demonstrated the extent to which epidemiology and morality were intellectually associated during the early 19^{th<\/sup> century. Well-to-do New Yorkers understood epidemiology through the lens of morality. Lacking sufficient medical explanation for the spread of Cholera, they reasoned that Cholera was a form of divine retribution, and that inhabitants of the Five Points had exposed themselves by succumbing to vice. \u00a0The Five Points had a reputation for immorality, after all; Rosenberg called it a \u201cthe city\u2019s red light district\u201d (33). Violent crime, unemployment and prostitution were commonplace. Gangs such as the Dead Rabbits and Bowery Boys famously clashed here during the 1860s.<\/p>\n}

In short, I\u2019ve found a great case study, which I can use to make generalizations about the 1832 Cholera epidemic, its social effects, and its implications about the intersection of morality, medical science and public health in 19^{th<\/sup> century American thought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"}

Blog Post 9 (for Thursday, 4\/3) In his book \u201cThe Cholera Years\u201d, which I reviewed, Charles Rosenberg demonstrates an interesting meta-narrative about disease and public health in America during the 19th century. Reading \u201cThe Cholera Years\u201d helped me realize that the 1832 Cholera epidemic in New York is part of a much bigger story; as … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Research Proposal Update: Finding The “Five Points””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4,64,163,299,355],"class_list":["post-594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-4","tag-cholera","tag-five-points","tag-new-york","tag-rosenberg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":862,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions\/862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}