Histories of Health in Southeast Asia ― Perspectives on the Long Twentieth Century

Health patterns in Southeast Asia have changed profoundly over the past century. In that period, epidemic and chronic diseases, environmental transformations, and international health institutions have created new connections within the region and the increased interdependence of Southeast Asia with China and India. In this volume leading scholars provide a new approach to the history of health in Southeast Asia. Framed by a series of synoptic pieces on the "Landscapes of Health" in Southeast Asia in 1914, 1950, and 2014 the essays interweave local, national, and regional perspectives. They range from studies of long-term processes such as changing epidemics, mortality and aging, and environmental history to detailed accounts of particular episodes: the global cholera epidemic and the hajj, the influenza epidemic of 1918, WWII, and natural disasters. The writers also examine state policy on healthcare and the influence of organizations, from NGOs such as the China Medical Board and the Rockefeller Foundation to grassroots organizations in Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Tim Harper is Reader in Southeast Asian History at the Faculty of History, University of Cambridge, Fellow of Magdalene College, and Associate Director of the Centre for History and Economics. He is author of The End of Empire and the Making of Malaya and (with Christopher Bayly) Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia, 1941–45 and Forgotten Wars: The End of Britain's Asian Empire.

Sunil Amrith is Reader in Modern Asian History at Birkbeck, University of London. He is author of Decolonizing International Health: India and Southeast Asia, 1930–65; Migration and Diaspora in Modern Asia; and Crossing the Bay of Bengal: The Furies of Nature and the Fortunes of Migrants.