Join us at Harry’s Hofbrau in Redwood City on Tuesday, February 18. Harry’s opens at 11 am for cafeteria style lunch; our meeting will start promptly at 12 noon. See the MEETING INFO menu item for directions. This month’s topic is

Kathryn Olivarius on “The Role of Disease and Infection in the U.S. Civil War”

During the United States Civil War, diseases like dysentery and sepsis—not bullets—killed and estimated two-thirds of the 750,000 war dead. And at least 200,000 Union soldiers—mostly unmarried men in their teens and twenties—contracted venereal disease. Some died from it. But many others survived the war and brought it home, making this war for freedom a super-spreader event for syphilis and shame.

Kathryn Olivarius is Associate Professor of U.S. History at Stanford University. Her research focuses on the antebellum South, the Caribbean, slavery and disease. Her BA degree in History from Yale University and her Masters and Ph.D. in U.S. History are from the University of Oxford.