About

As historians, watching a crisis as it unfolds offers lessons in knowing which factors to look for and at when we turn to analysis of the past.  What is unfolding now in West Africa with Ebola is catastrophic, and we encourage you to do whatever you can to help (e.g., donating to medical organizations).  However, we have our own role to play as historians, which is to develop a sound understanding of the crisis and help contribute to the understanding of the general public.  Should your friend who's about to travel to West Africa cancel their trip?  Should Congress appropriate funds to help with the medical or public health intervention?  Should the WHO coordinate efforts on an international level, or should this be left to individual state governments?  These are all real world questions that require the attention of historians. Now.

One of us - Professor Monica Green - began collecting this material immediately. Her efforts can be found here.  Over the next month, we will endeavor to transfer this material to this more searchable blog platform. We will include here: (I) news/information outlets that are well worth bookmarking in order to stay up on the latest news; (II) new media items as they accumulate; (III) past items worthy of attention; (IV) some items from around the time of the initial discovery of Ebola in 1976; and (V) some of the key pieces reflecting current scientific knowledge of the disease (genetics, epidemiology, clinical course of the disease, etc), emphasizing particularly work on zoonoses and the zoonotic origin of the virus.