Talking Politics

David talks to the historian Richard Evans about the history of cholera epidemics in the 19th century and what they can teach us for today. How did contemporaries understand the spread of the disease? What impact did it have on growing demands for democracy? And who tended to get the blame - foreigners, doctors or politicians? Plus we discuss whether the political changes being driven by the currentpandemic are likely to outlast the disease itself.Talking Points: Massive epidemics are a normal part of human history, even if they are infrequent.You can see this with the Plague, syphilis, and, in the 19th century, cholera.Cholera hit Europe in the beginning of the 1830s, and like many epidemic diseases, it was spread through increased communications.The conquest of North India opened up trade routes, and that’s how cholera traveled.The terrifying thing was the death rate: it was 50%, much much higher than coronavirus. When cholera hit, the response was heavily shaped by knowledge o