Epidemics are “moments of fluidity when parts of existing societies are laid bare as not fit for purpose”. Looking at the history of the Black Death, Jane Whittle asks whether our current crisis could lead to new solutions to entrenched inequality and poverty.
How did behaviour change become an integral part of public health strategies in the twentieth century? And what insights can this history offer in tackling the unique challenge of Covid-19?
In our “Apocalypse Then and Now” feature, Kat Hill explores the sixteenth century world of German Anabaptism and asks what it means to believe that you are living through the End of the World.
These are exceptional times. But the dangers of solitude are a very old theme. Barbara Taylor and David Vincent reflect on the fine historical line between loneliness and solitude in light of Covid-19.
What value do the lessons of the past have in shaping strategies for managing the COVID-19 outbreak? In this article, Guillaume Lachenal and Gaëtan Thomas argue that an over-reliance on the allure of ‘pandemic precedents’ needs to be replaced with an enhanced understanding of the capacity of present crises to resist historical interpretation.
This piece is part of HWO’s feature on ‘Apocalypse Then and Now’. The feature brings together radical reflections and historic perspectives on catastrophe and calamity. How have crises (both real and imagined), and responses to them, shaped our world?
Here Pippo Carmona discusses historic instances of epidemics, and ways in which war has often served as a vector for viral disease.
Matthew McCormack sets the UK government’s response to Coronavirus in historic context, shedding some light on British responses to the Coronavirus pandemic, in contrast with the responses from other parts of the world.
