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The Colonial Life of Pharmaceuticals: Medicines and Modernity in Vietnam by Laurence Monnais (review)

and authority, Derr highlights how the perennial Nile played a principal role in affecting the bodies of rural laborers in the second section of the book. The induction of perennial irrigation led to the creation of new multispecies in the Egyptian agricultural ecology during this period, which in turn led to parasitic infections such as hookworm and schistosomiasis. Derr compellingly argues that the Nile River altered the life of rural laborers, aided in the production of a new norm for Egyptian rural bodies, and shaped colonial medicine. In so doing, she illuminates efforts of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Egyptian state to ascertain and then treat the parasitic infections such as subjecting rural bodies to experimentation, constructing latrines in villages, and unleashing public education initiatives to alter behaviors. As a respected Middle Eastern historian, Derr’s passion for the interconnection of Egypt’s colonial economy with the material Nile River is evident. In constructing her account, she utilizes various archival sources such as those from the British National Archives, Egyptian National Library and Archives, and the World Health Organization. Yet, Derr does not seek first-hand accounts from people who experienced the unpleasantness of the colonial economy and the parasitic diseases – the rural laborers. Interviews or other such documentation would possibly have provided a more powerful telling of the manner the Egypt’s rural community lived through the built transformation of the Nile River. However, in the end, The Lived Nile accomplishes Derr’s goal: demonstrating that the Nile River played an integral role in structuring experiences for those who played a part in the Egyptian colonial economy of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Those interested in Middle East, environmental, medicine, or social history should read this well-written book.