I am writing a monograph on the history of tuberculosis in southern Africa based on research conducted in South Africa and Swaziland over the past three years. The first half of the study will employ medical records, reports and correspondence to examine the complex interplay which has occurred between the region's developing economy--the growth of urban and industrial centers, the development of migrant labor patterns, the impoverishment of rural areas--and the changing incidence and pathology of tuberculosis among blacks, from the middle of the 19th through the middle of the 20th century. The second half of the study will explore the relationship between industrialization and the history of European medical responses to the rising tide of TB among southern African blacks during this period. This investigation, based on the published and private writings of local medical authorities, will examine the ways in which the development of medical opinion concerning the causes and prevention of TB among blacks was shaped by economic and social considerations associated with industrialization and the need to establish and maintain an abundant supply of industrial labor. The completed study will clarify understanding of the underlying political and economic determinants of tuberculosis in southern Africa and provide insights into both the history of medicine and the sociology of medical knowledge and practice. An NEH Publication Grant will support the writing of the second half of this study.
