New Books Network Olivia Weisser, "The Dreaded Pox: Sex and Disease in Early Modern London" (Cambridge UP, 2026)
Jan 28, 2026
Olivia Weisser, a history professor who studies medicine and early modern patient experiences, explores the lived world of the dreaded pox in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century London. She traces hidden voices through recipe books and trade cards. Topics include stigma and visibility, who sold and used cures, domestic treatments, and how the pox shaped courts and urban life.
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Mapping Everyday Disease Spaces
- Olivia Weisser mapped non-medical sites to reconstruct lived experiences of the pox in London.
- She used taverns, homes, recipe books, and handbills to read everyday coping and treatment networks.
Stigma Made The Disease 'Modern'
- Venereal disease served as a broad umbrella of symptoms before modern disease categories.
- Stigma made people treat it anonymously, which produced market and diagnostic patterns that resemble later modern medicine.
Visibility, Urban Growth, And Stigma
- Visual markers mattered greatly in early modern London and amplified venereal stigma.
- London’s growth and consumer culture spread infection and created a booming market for cures.
