Diseases and Native Americans from Colonial Hawaii to Covid-19 with Seth Archer
Episode 15 - June 21, 2020
Seth Archer from Utah State sits down with Merle and Lee to talk about the diseases that passed through the Columbian Exchange and their impact on Native Americans. Archer offers a broad take on how historians have written about diseases after the colonization of North America and then turns to his area of expertise: the impact of disease on Hawaii after the voyages of James Cook. He reveals how historians of disease can move past questions of demography to investigate cultural questions. At the end, he talks to the hosts about how Covid-19 has struck Native Americans today, connecting back to earlier episodes on the role of race and economic inequality in our current pandemic.
Further Reading
- Alfred W. Crosby, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900–1900, 2nd ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2004)
- Vine Deloria, Jr., The World We Used to Live In : Remembering the Powers of the Medicine Men (Fulcrum, 2006)
- Elizabeth A. Fenn, Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775–82 (Hill & Wang, 2001)
- Charles C. Mann, 1493: Uncovering the World Columbus Created (Vintage, 2012)
- Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness, an exhibition of the National Library of Medicine, 2015
Our Guest
Seth Archer,
Assistant Professor, History Department, Utah State University
