2. “An Infancy of Government”: Population, Authority, and the Problem of Proprietorship

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Preface ix
4. Acknowledgments xiii
5. Introduction: Epidemic Constitutions 1
6. 1. “A Rude Place and an Unpolisht Man”: William Penn and the Nature of Pennsylvania 7
7. 2. “An Infancy of Government”: Population, Authority, and the Problem of Proprietorship 21
8. 3. “A Suitable Charity or an Effectual Security”: Community, Contagion, and the Care of Strangers 33
9. 4. “A Body Corporate and Politick”: Association, Interest, and Improvement in a Provincial City 57
10. 5. “Improvement in Every Part of the Healing Art”: Transatlantic Cultures of Medical Improvement 76
11. 6. “A Fine Field for Professional Improvement”: Sites and Sources of Medical Authority in the Revolutionary War 86
12. 7. “In a Yielding State”: Nervous Nationalism in the New Republic 103
13. 8. “Those Friendly Reciprocities”: Panic and Participation in the Age of Yellow Fever 120
14. 9. “A Matter of Police”: Fever and Betrayal in the Federal Union 135
15. Conclusion: Looking West from Philadelphia 153
16. Notes 163
17. Index 219