Stories in the Time of Cholera: Racial Profiling During a Medical Nightmare

University of California Press, January 2003. Hardcover . Very Good/Very Good. 'Ten years ago, cholera 'raced' through part of eastern Venezuela, moving along social fault lines long in the making. This harrowing and beautifully written account chronicles a complex array of social responses to an epidemic and shows us what an engaged and responsible anthropology can offer those seeking to understand and prevent such plagues--and the injustices that foster them. Stories in the Time of Cholera is sure to have broad appeal within the social sciences and public health, and it should be required reading for public authorities and the press, whose prejudices clearly compounded the injuries meted out by the microbe itself. This is an exceedingly important book.'--Paul Farmer, author of 'Infections and Inequalities' <BR>'Sometimes the historian can only envy the ethnographer's ability to observe and configure complex social and conceptual worlds. This study of cholera constitutes one of those occasions: I can only admire the authors' ability to unravel class, attitudinal, and institutional relationships, using social responses to cholera as their sampling device.'--Charles E. Rosenberg, author of 'Explaining Epidemics'