Quarantine

This dissertation is a study of two episodes of mass mortality, in Marseilles during 1720-21, and in Aleppo, Syria, during 1761-62. Linked by trade ties, missionary outreach, and diplomatic contacts, the two cities were a microcosm of eighteenth-century relations across the Medi…

This dissertation provides a scientific and social history of ventilation in the British Atlantic World during the long eighteenth century. Emerging amidst the enlightened craze for improvement, the first ventilating machines, or “ventilators,” aimed to extend the providential b…

This work looks at the effect of institutions on development. It draws on fieldwork in a case study country, Sierra Leone. Problems of underdevelopment in Sierra Leone have been linked to institutional failures. This thesis examines that argument, both in relation to agrarian ch…