Praises go to Dr. Bay for his Book Beriberi In Modern Japan: The Making of a National Disease

Recently,
Assistant Professor of History
, Alex Bay, published his book
Beriberi In Modern Japan: The Making of a National Disease.
A book about modern Japan, beriberi (or thiamin deficiency) becoming a public health problem that cuts across all social boundaries, afflicting the Meiji Emperor.

David Arnold, author of
Colonizing the Body
had this to say about Dr. Bay’s book.

“Alexander Bay shows in this historically nuanced and theoretically engaged monograph, the forty-year struggle (from the 1880s to the 1920s) to contain beriberi and uncover its etiology illuminates the changing character of medical authority in Japan, its reciprocal relationship with political power, and the “colonizing” nature of modern science.”

“Bay carries the study of this “national disease” to impressive new lengths. He deftly exploits the diversity of opinion within the Japanese medical establishment to demonstrate the intensity of the beriberi debates, and he shows the centrality of the disease in the conceptualization of Japan as a modern nation and science as a “colonizing” presence. A significant contribution to the history of medicine and of medical modernity in Japan, this is a book that also opens up fascinating comparative perspectives elsewhere in Asia and beyond.”

Read more from Arnold’s Review …


Congrats, Dr. Bay!