Fall/Winter 2006 - University of Toronto Press Publishing

N E W I N PA P E R B A C K
Hunting the 1918 Flu
One Scientist’s Search for a Killer Virus
Kirsty E. Duncan
In 1918 the Spanish flu epidemic swept the world
and killed an estimated 20 to 40 million people in
just one year, more than the number that died during
the four years of the First World War. To this
day medical science has been at a loss to explain the
Spanish flu’s origin. Most virologists are convinced
that sooner or later a similarly deadly flu virus will
return with a vengeance; thus anything we can learn
from the 1918 flu may save lives in a new epidemic.
Responding to sustained interest in this medical
mystery, Hunting the 1918 Flu presents a detailed
account of Kirsty Duncan’s experiences as she
organized an international, multi-discipline scientific
expedition to exhume the bodies of a group of
Norwegian miners buried in Svalbard, all victims of
the flu virus. Duncan’s narrative describes a largescale
medical project to uncover genetic material
from the Spanish flu; it also reveals the turbulent
politics of a group moving towards a goal where
the egos were as strong as the stakes were high. The
author, herself a medical geographer, is very frank
about her bruising emotional, financial, and professional
experiences on the ‘dark side of science.’
Duncan raises questions not only about public
health, epidemiology, the ethics of science, and the
rights of subjects, but also about the role of age,
gender, and privilege in science.
Kirsty E. Duncan is an adjunct professor at the
University of Toronto where she teaches medical
geography.
MEDICAL HISTORY
Recognizing Aboriginal Title
The Mabo Case and Indigenous Resistance to
English-Settler Colonialism
Peter H. Russell
WINNER OF THE C. HERMAN PRITCHETT AWARD
A judicial revolution occurred in 1992 when
Australia’s highest court discarded a doctrine that
had stood for two hundred years – that the country
was a terra nullius (literally, a land of no one) when
the white man arrived. The proceedings were known
as the Mabo case, named for Eddie Koiki Mabo, the
Torres Strait Islander who fought the notion that the
Australian Aboriginal people did not have a system
of land ownership before European colonization.
The case had international repercussions, especially
in the four countries in which English-speaking
settlers formed the dominant population: Australia,
Canada, New Zealand, and the United States.
In Recognizing Aboriginal Title, Peter H. Russell
offers a comprehensive study of the Mabo case. Russell
weaves together the story of Mabo’s life with an
examination of the legal and ideological foundations
of European imperialism and their eventual challenge
by the global forces of decolonization. He traces the
development of Australian law and policy in relation
to Aborigines, and provides a detailed account of the
decade of litigation that led to the Mabo case.
Recognizing Aboriginal Title is a work of global
importance by a legal and constitutional scholar of
international renown, written with a passion worthy
of its subject – a man who fought hard for his
people and won.
Peter H. Russell is University Professor Emeritus
in the Department of Political Science at the
University of Toronto.
LAW / NATIVE STUDIES
320 pp / 6 x 9 / August 2006
14 halftones, 5 figures, 1 map
ISBN 0-8020-9456-2 / 978-0-8020-9456-8
£11.95 $19.95 T
Originally published in cloth: May 2003
Approx. 450 pp / 6 x 9 / Available
10 halftones
ISBN 0-8020-9443-0 / 978-0-8020-9443-8
£22.50 $35.00 C
Originally published in cloth: July 2005
WORLD RIGHTS OUTSIDE AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND.
CO-PUBLISHED WITH UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES PRESS.
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