In Pandemic in Potosí, Kris Lane artfully assembles and interprets primary sources on a topic both far removed in time and space from modern libraries and classrooms and yet immediately relevant: social responses to pandemic disease. Any concerns over the rigor of so timely a publication are quickly dispelled by Lane's engaging and thorough analysis and the clear significance of the primary sources that make up the majority of the text. The book is Lane's second contribution to the Latin American Originals series by Pennsylvania State University Press, in which highly qualified scholars translate, transcribe, and interpret primary sources from colonial Latin America for an audience ranging from students to scholars. Lane succeeds in this ambitious task, compiling an accessible text that scholars and students alike will appreciate.
In the preface, Lane raises the central question: How did societies without our modern medical and scientific capacities respond to pandemics?...
