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The Andean wonder drug : cinchona bark and imperial science in the Spanish Atlantic, 1630-1800 / Matthew James Crawford

Author
Crawford, Matthew James
Published
Pittsburgh, PA : University of Pittsburgh Press, [2016]
Copyright Date
©2016
Physical Description
xi, 284 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

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Contents
Machine generated contents note: pt. I Andean, Atlantic, and Imperial Networks of Knowledge -- 1.Quina as a Medicament from the Andean World -- 2.Quina as a Product of the Atlantic World -- 3.Quina as a Natural Resource for the Spanish Empire -- pt. II The Rule of the Local and the Rise of the Botanists -- 4.Loja's Bark Collectors, the King's Pharmacists, and the Search for the Best Bark -- 5.Botanists as the Empire's New Experts in Madrid -- 6.Imperial Reform, Local Knowledge, and the Limits of Botany in the Andean World -- 7.Regalist and Mercantilist Visions of Empire in the "War of the Quinas".
Summary
"In the eighteenth century, malaria was a prevalent and deadly disease, and the only effective treatment was found in the Andean forests of Spanish America: a medicinal bark harvested from cinchona trees that would later give rise to the antimalarial drug quinine. In 1751, the Spanish Crown asserted control over the production and distribution of this medicament by establishing a royal reserve of "fever trees" in Quito. Through this pilot project, the Crown pursued a new vision of imperialism informed by science and invigorated through commerce. But ultimately this project failed, much like the broader imperial reforms that it represented. Drawing on extensive archival research, Matthew Crawford explains why, showing how indigenous healers, laborers, merchants, colonial officials, and creole elites contested European science and thwarted imperial reform by asserting their authority to speak for the natural world. The Andean Wonder Drug uses the story of cinchona bark to demonstrate how the imperial politics of knowledge in the Spanish Atlantic ultimately undermined efforts to transform European science into a tool of empire"--
"In the eighteenth century, malaria was a prevalent and deadly disease, and the only effective treatment was found in the Andean forests of Spanish America: a medicinal bark harvested from cinchona trees that would later give rise to the antimalarial drug quinine. The Andean Wonder Drug uses the story of cinchona bark to demonstrate how the imperial politics of knowledge in the Spanish Atlantic ultimately undermined efforts to transform European science into a tool of empire"--
Subject(s)
ISBN
9780822944522 (hardback ; acid-free paper)
0822944529 (hardback ; acid-free paper)
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-274) and index.
Source of Acquisition
Purchased with funds from the Arts and Humanities Library Collections Endowment in Honor of Sherry Petska and George Middlemas; 2016
Endowment Note
James F. Holly Libraries Endowment
Arts and Humanities Library Collections Endowment in Honor of Sherry Petska and George Middlemas
View MARC record | catkey: 20275498