Cholera was the classic epidemic disease of the nineteenth century, as the plague had been for the fourteenth. Its defeat was a reflection not only of progress in medical knowledge but of enduring changes in American social thought. Rosenberg has focused his study on New York City, the most highly developed center of this new society. Carefully documented, full of descriptive detail, yet written with an urgent sense of the drama of the epidemic years, this narrative is as absorbing for general audiences as it is for the medical historian.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The epidemic : 1832 --God's justice -- Or man's injustice -- The medical profession I -- Aldermen and cholera -- The epidemic : 1849 -- Religion, science, and progress -- The nature of poverty and the prevention of disease -- The medical profession II -- America after the war -- The metropolitan board of health -- The gospel of public health.