Amazon.com
Where's your next disease coming from? From anywhere in the world--from overflowing sewage in Cairo, from a war zone in Rwanda, from an energy-efficient office building in California, from a pig farm in China or North Carolina. "Preparedness demands understanding," writes Pulitzer-winning journalist Laurie Garrett, and in this precursor to Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health, she shows a clear understanding of the patterns lying beneath the new diseases in the headlines (AIDS, Lyme) and the old ones resurgent (tuberculosis, cholera). As the human population explodes, ecologies collapse and simplify, and disease organisms move into the gaps. As globalization continues, diseases can move from one country to another as fast as an airplane can fly.
While the human race battles itself ... the advantage moves to the microbes' court. They are our predators and they will be victorious if we, Homo sapiens, do not learn how to live in a rational global village that affords the microbes few opportunities.
Her picture is not entirely bleak. Epidemics grow when a disease outbreak is amplified--by contaminated water supplies, by shared needles, by recirculated air, by prostitution. And controlling the amplifiers of disease is within our power; it's a matter of money, people, and will. --Mary Ellen Curtin
Customer Reviews:
More riveting than The Hot Zone .......2007-09-03
If you liked The Hot Zone, you will love this book. The Hot Zone told the scary story of a variant of Ebola that turned out to be harmless to humans. The Coming Plague narrates the history of little-known but lethal diseases such as Machupo, Ebola, Four-Corners Hantavirus, Lassa Fever, Marburg and others. In each of these cases, the list of victims was relatively small, but the onset and progress of these illnesses were frightful. Garrett examines how "disease cowboys" worked backward to patient zero, followed the course of the illness, discovered its means of transmission and identified each disease. In a few cases, the original vector could not be found, despite a careful search. How even medical professionals react when they find out that they too, have the disease is a fascinating psychological study. Often they go into a state of denial, like the researcher in New York who came down with Lassa after studying some samples. At the other extreme was one doctor, who, fearing he was exposed to Ebola, hit the bottle hoping that alcohol would kill the virus. To his relief it turned out to be measles.
A large amount of this book is devoted to AIDS. Garrett details its emergence in the early 80s. She is critical of the government's slow response, which she says was partly due to the insistence of some in the Reagan administration that since it affected only homosexual men it was beneath concern. On the other hand, she suggests that the rampant promiscuity of some members of the gay community didn't help matters either. While there was enough blame to go around, the real heroes were a handful of careful physicians who noted some bizarre symptoms among their gay patients and brought this medical condition to the CDC and the world's attention. While this book presents an excellent history of the emergence of AIDS in both America and Africa, Garrett's information on AIDS is now unfortunately out-of-date.
The author presents more chapters on antibiotic-resistant TB, Legionnaire's Disease, the problem with overdosing farm animals with antibiotics and even Toxic Shock Syndrome. At one point, I bogged down with information overload. But during Garrett's chapters on hemorrhagic and other exotic fevers, this book is difficult to put down.
Fascinating and frightening.......2007-07-23
This book, when it came out, pointed out the coming problems in our medical system like antibiotic resistance, long before it became common knowledge. But it also suggests that as we continue to transform our environment, new plagues and diseases will continue to threaten our existence.
My only criticism of the book is that it was a difficult read, because it is very densely packed with information. This book requires patience to read, but it is well worth it.
Extraordinary.......2007-03-31
After finishing this book you will never read a newspaper the same way again. I am amazed, and a little scared, at how much of what Laurie Garrett wrote in 1995 has come to pass in 2007. Her story about the "disease cowboys" who track the causes of unexplained epidemics in the remote corners of the world is both absorbing and eye-opening. And it has helped me to see disturbing trends in current news stories that I would have missed had I not read The Coming Plague.
When it first appeared, I avoided this book because it seemed depressing and alarmist. In the years since I have had occasion to work on some international communications projects and in the process came to be interested in global public health. Once that happened, reading Garrett's book was essential. She is one of the most informed individuals writing on global public health in the US today.
Amazingly, although the material is sobering and sometimes truly scary, the book is not in the least depressing. It often reads like an adventure story. If you like detective puzzles, you'll be drawn into Garrett's tales of Ebola turning up in Reston, Virginia, and Marburg virus being unwittingly spread by do-gooder missionaries in the Congo.
Irony abounds. It turns out that much of the good we thought we were doing in the developing world was exactly the wrong thing. Garrett relates that many development projects and purported medical "advances" served to promote the evolution of drug resistant bacteria and viruses, while also raising wildly unrealistic expectations for the eradication of disease among the public and the medical establishment. The results are the return of diseases we thought were gone for good, such as TB and -- get this -- bubonic plague, and they are even harder to treat this time around because the microbes are resistent to many antibiotics and drug therapies.
Don't be daunted by the 700+ pages of this book. It is a great read and definitely worth the time you will invest in educating yourself about the the impact of human beings and our technological development on the ecology of microbial environments. I recommend The Coming Plague most highly.
One of the Four Horsemen.......2006-08-30
I read this book when it first came out and lost it when a friend didn't return it. This a fascinating book and since it was first published SARS and Bird Flu has entered our world. If you are prone to panic attacks or nightmares don't read this book because the author did a fantastic job at research and has revealed our future and the diseases that will alter it.
Superb research.......2006-08-07
This book is superb for a number of reasons but the meticulous research behind it really stands out. There is not an idea or suggested proposition that is not referenced to one - and sometimes - mulitple sources. The tentive conclusions that are laid out are suggested only after exhaustive research and tightly logical arguments.
It is not just the research and the logic, however, that makes this book so good. The book is well written and conveys the difficult subject matter of emerging, infectious diseases in a highly readable but detailed and informative matter.
The book is also laid out in a very logical fashion. In different chapters it covers everything from the etiology of new diseases to methods of transmission to social and cultural factors involved in their spread to the drama of in-field investigation of new and fiercely lethal pathogens.
The book also explores the most recent research on the evolution of new diseases, with discoveries that may portend revolutions in the understanding the natural world.
In short, this is an indespensible work for anyone wishing to understand the emergence of new diseases and cutting edge science in the modern world.
Book Description
No disease the world has ever known even remotely resembles the great influenza epidemic of 1918. Presumed to have begun when sick farm animals infected soldiers in Kansas, spreading and mutating into a lethal strain as troops carried it to Europe, it exploded across the world with unequaled ferocity and speed. It killed more people in twenty weeks than AIDS has killed in twenty years; it killed more people in a year than the plagues of the Middle Ages killed in a century. Victims bled from the ears and nose, turned blue from lack of oxygen, suffered aches that felt like bones being broken, and died. In the United States, where bodies were stacked without coffins on trucks, nearly seven times as many people died of influenza as in the First World War.
In his powerful new book, award-winning historian John M. Barry unfolds a tale that is magisterial in its breadth and in the depth of its research, and spellbinding as he weaves multiple narrative strands together. In this first great collision between science and epidemic disease, even as society approached collapse, a handful of heroic researchers stepped forward, risking their lives to confront this strange disease. Titans like William Welch at the newly formed Johns Hopkins Medical School and colleagues at Rockefeller University and others from around the country revolutionized American science and public health, and their work in this crisis led to crucial discoveries that we are still using and learning from today.
The Washington PostÂ's Jonathan Yardley said BarryÂ's last book can “change the way we think.” The Great Influenza may also change the way we see the world.
Customer Reviews:
The real version of "The Stand" by Stephen King.......2007-09-11
I really enjoyed this book as it showed in real life how fast a flu epidemic can spread. One has to realize that this epidemic took place in basically horse and buggy days, people did not travel as much. If you look into your family history, as I did, you may find a relative who died during this time period. After I read this book I discovered a graveyard for a turn of the century orphanage. There were so many children that died, all they could do is put numbers on the gravestones. It made me think how fast a flu epidemic could travel today. The references and facts were an eye opener.
Wow! Very Important Read.......2007-08-31
This book will definitely really make you reconsider the vulnerability of society to an epidemic. What really surprised me was how this single epidemic really kick-started the modern health care system. I had no idea that 100 years ago, it was easier to get certified to be a doctor than it was to go to college - quite literally one could go through a correspondence course. It also traces the development and speaks to the foundation of institutions who, our time, are revered for their stature in modern medicine, such as John Hopkins. It covers a great many aspects of medicine and epidemiology. What this book does best, and is truly refreshing for a history book, is provide insight into the thinking of the time - what role politics and political decisions made in the outbreaks in certain cities. What is truly horrifying is how really vulnerable populations are to influenza. Although we understand it better, actual treatment is still quite limited (prevention seems to be the best hope). A small mutation in the virus could again hammer populations around the world. I took on this book because my grandfather's family was so badly devastated by it. I never really asked enough about it before he passed away and now I wish I had. I recommend this book to anyone interested in epidemiology, medicine, particularly how medicine has advanced in the last 100 years, particularly in the US, or if, like me, your family history may have been effected by this. The most frightening aspect is the astounding speed with which this virus spread and the corresponding mortality rate that it brought with it. Tie that in with its extreme, and I mean extreme contagiousness and one finds a really frightening scenario. I can't imagine a world where people are dying so fast they can't even bury the bodies, doctors and nurses are afflicted so badly that they die almost as fast as the patients, that almost nobody really understands how the contagion is spread and people shun one another - neighbors, even family members. What is even more frightening is that this happened less than one hundred years ago. It really makes you think. It really makes you consider how truly vulnerable we all are.
a true horror story.......2007-08-17
First, with all the fearmongering about pandemics in the last couple of years, it is nice to read about the most deadly epidemic the world has ever known. It's not real comforting, but it is better than the fear Fox News was pandering at Rita/Katrina and the bird flu. It's a great book, one that should have been written, though it could have used a better editor. The book does jump around and there is a lot that probably could have been cut, but it is a great book dealing with a complex subject.
Frightening and informative.......2007-08-13
A facinating window into a horrifying period that we've almost intentionally downplayed in our histories. It's especially worthwhile given the recent concerns about an inevitable pandemic. We are better equipped in some ways to deal with a worldwide pandemic, but in many others we are even more fragile. Viruses, like trade, move much more quickly now.
Excellent Book.......2007-08-01
I learned a vast amount about disease, the medical system, and medecine in general. One of the best and most informative books I have ever read. Well-researched and easy to read.
Amazon.com
No small themes for historian William McNeill: he is a writer of big, sweeping books, from
The Rise of the West to
The History of the World.
Plagues and Peoples considers the influence of infectious diseases on the course of history, and McNeill pays special attention to the Black Death of the 13th and 14th centuries, which killed millions across Europe and Asia. (At one point, writes McNeill, 10,000 people in Constantinople alone were dying each day from the plague.) With the new crop of plagues and epidemics in our own time, McNeill's quiet assertion that "in any effort to understand what lies ahead the role of infectious disease cannot properly be left out of consideration" takes on new significance.
Book Description
Upon its original publication, Plagues and Peoples was an immediate critical and popular success, offering a radically new interpretation of world history as seen through the extraordinary impact--political, demographic, ecological, and psychological--of disease on cultures. From the conquest of Mexico by smallpox as much as by the Spanish, to the bubonic plague in China, to the typhoid epidemic in Europe, the history of disease is the history of humankind. With the identification of AIDS in the early 1980s, another chapter has been added to this chronicle of events, which William McNeill explores in his new introduction to this updated editon.
Thought-provoking, well-researched, and compulsively readable, Plagues and Peoples is that rare book that is as fascinating as it is scholarly, as intriguing as it is enlightening. "A brilliantly conceptualized and challenging achievement" (Kirkus Reviews), it is essential reading, offering a new perspective on human history.
Customer Reviews:
Bio-Materialist History.......2007-10-11
Other reviews have captured the breadth of this powerful and provoking analysis; I can't add anything more. However, one unoticed aspect is how McNeill silently engages with Marx's economic materialist analysis by showing before you can have a base, let alone a superstructure, you must have control of or a standoff with infectious diseases. Thus in some ways, his dialectical interplay between macro- and micro- parasitism is in fact even more "radical" than Marx, if "radical' is used in the original sense (to get at the root). What is disappointing is that nobody has followed up since using McNeill's fertile insights.
Amazing How a Few Invisible Germs Changed the World.......2007-01-19
The main thesis of William McNeill's "Plagues and People" is that disease states and the general health of various regions of the world throughout history have shaped social practices, religious thinking and political structures -- even leading to the rise and fall of entire civilizations.
MacNeill's startling, well-defended claims are fascinating, eminently quotable and worthy of re-reading. For example, the Greeks cultivated olives and grapes, which require little manual labor. Their olive oil and wine was a valuable currency around the ancient world, saving their island from the terrible scourges of disease suffered by isolated, overworked agrarian societies without urban-honed immunological defenses. He goes so far as to say that this gave the Greeks the freedom to create their highly developed culture and unparalleled psychological insights.
McNeill's august text has influenced many other scholars, but the lay reader will find this romp through history, well, infectiously entertaining. Highly recommended.
Bugs, germs and parasites.......2006-10-11
Long before Jared Diamond captured headlines and dominated bestseller lists with 'Gun, Germs and Steel," the distinguished University of Chicago historian William McNeill published "Plagues and Peoples" that carried a similar message, albeit heavily focused on the "germs" part of the equation.
McNeill's central thesis is that bacteriology has had a profound impact on the course of human history and will continue to be a fundamental component of human affairs forever. In short, communicable disease can never be fully defeated. As human population continues to grow and as technology and social revolutions change our behavior and modes of interaction, micro parasites will exploit the new opportunities to infect and kills us. He argues that humans and micro parasites have been engaged in nearly continuous combat for advantage since human beings first left the cradle of civilization in Africa.
In making this argument, McNeill offers up an interesting explanation for Africa's pitiful condition up to the present day. He claims that humans developed in the heat and moisture of the African climate and over time an ecological balance developed between man and micro parasite. The well-established micro parasitic infections were nature's way of ensuring that no one species dominated. It was only when humans discovered clothing and began moving to colder climates that did not so easily support traditional disease did the battle for primacy between man and bug begin. McNeill states that even today Africa is an example of a well functioning ecological balance where the tsetse fly and the sleeping sickness it carries, for instance, still determines the range where humans can penetrate.
McNeill stresses that the history of disease is more than simply the story of epidemics and consequent die-off of large swaths of a population. He shows that micro parasites have touched a broad spectrum of human behavior and cultural development. For instance, he argues that today's major world religions, especially Christianity and Hinduism, thrived in the epidemic disease experiences of the first century AD. Those religions provided some explanation to the apparent randomness of sudden death from a variety of ailments and it offered the hope of salvage and eternal life after death. Moreover, McNeill argues that epidemic diseases that leveled Aztec and Incan culture accelerated the acceptance of Christianity in the New World by the native population. After all, what clearer sign of the power of the European God than the immunity of the white men from the diseases that swept through the vulnerable native communities.
McNeill also demonstrates how fear of disease - particularly the global cholera outbreak of the 1830s that killed so quickly and horribly - promoted massive public health programs that eventually had a tremendous impact on industrial and economic growth. The improved sanitary conditions allowed cities to flourish and workers to remain healthy and productive. He also argues that an army's ability to conquer disease in its ranks was likely more important than its ability to conquer its enemy in open combat. Until the 20th century, the vast majority of deaths in war were the result of disease, sometimes accounting for over tens times the combat deaths. The army that could prevent such devastation had an incredible advantage.
The major breakthrough for humans, McNeill argues, was the period 1300-1700. That four century period witnessed two critical transportation revolutions: the Eurasian land route developed by the Mongols and the European-led sea-based transportation. The relatively rapid dissemination of people meant the rapid dissemination of disease. The homogenization of disease between Europe, the Middle East, India and China led to the "domestication" of epidemic disease and marked a fundamental breakthrough in world history. This interaction led many diseases to transition from crippling epidemics to manageable endemics that took the form of childhood diseases; the same diseases that decimated the New World native populations when they were exposed in the 16th century.
Lastly, it is interesting to read how long it took humans to understand how disease was spread. The fact that germs are invisible obviously played a central role in their ability to survive. But just as importantly were the different varieties of contagion that confounded the ability to explain the spread of the illness. Because some diseases are spread by human contact, such as tuberculosis and small pox, and others by insects, such as the flea for bubonic plague and the mosquito for malaria and yellow fever, while others are spread by contaminated food and water, such as cholera, no simply solution seemed to work.
After reading "Plagues and Peoples" it is difficult to see world history the same as before. Modern scholars have poked a variety of holes in McNeill's arguments but the central thesis that bacteria and viruses have often been the causative agents of technological, social and political upheaval is difficult to refute.
wordy, interesting.......2006-06-16
William Mcneill presents a different and mind-expanding take on disease: microbes, humans, and governments all function similarly to facilitate their optimal survival and expansion. When the opportunistic structure gets too greedy, it may overwhelm the host. With time and familiarity, host and parasite usually come to an uneasy alliance, which allows the survival of each. If you read "Plagues and Peoples" with this thesis in mind, it is a very interesting book. If you lose sight of the thesis, it is too easy to get bogged down in the author's extremely baroque writing style. A few reviewers concluded that the book was hard for them to comprehend because they were high school aged readers. As an older adult, compulsive reader, with a lot of patience, I have to say I experienced the same problem with this book. I checked the biographical material on the author to see if English was his second language. I felt the book read as if translated. I found myself mentally simplifying almost every sentence, not because of the complexity of the idea being conveyed, but because of unnecessary verbage. "Plagues and Peoples" does contain loads information on the history of mankind and disease, within the framework of an interesting thesis. I just feel that simpler wording would have helped the book read smoother. Another very fascinating history of man's interaction with microbes which is much more reader friendly is "Men and Microbes".
Epidemic is historic.......2006-06-13
I bought this book from Amazon, and I read it here, in Brazil.This book is really good, about this subject.In fact, epidemic killed far more peoples than all wars and dictators together.Lenin or Hitler were small killers than smallpox.In fact, smallpox exterminated, more than 70% of indian population of Mexico in XVI Century.Illness decided wars, religions, poltics and economics for all the history.
This book is very good, but being writen in 1975, this book is now a little outdated.A new sexual desease(AIDS) became a reality and after DDT's banishment, malaria is back and strong in Africa,Asia and Latin America.
Amazon.com
There are few topics more distressing than disease, yet there are few books more darkly delightful than this timeless classic about the histories of microbial diseases, rats, and lice, and the scientists and doctors who combatted them. First published in 1934 and still in print, this book combines science, history, biography, literature, and other fields into an elegant but grim package of broad erudition and darker humor. Here are two representative passages.
...[I]nfectious disease is merely a disagreeable instance of a widely prevalent tendency of all living creatures to save themselves the bother of building, by their own efforts, the things they require. Whenever they find it possible to take advantage of the constructive labors of others, this is the path of least resistance. The plant does the work with its roots and its green leaves. The cow eats the plant. Man eats both of them; and bacteria (or investment bankers) eat the man....
...[T]he natural history of the rat is tragically similar to that of man ... some of the more obvious qualities in which rats resemble men--ferocity, omnivorousness, and adaptability to all climates ... the irresponsible fecundity with which both species breed at all seasons of the year with a heedlessness of consequences, which subjects them to wholesale disaster on the inevitable, occasional failure of the food supply.... [G]radually, these two have spread across the earth, keeping pace with each other and unable to destroy each other, though continually hostile. They have wandered from East to West, driven by their physical needs, and--unlike any other species of living things--have made war upon their own kind. The gradual, relentless, progressive extermination of the black rat by the brown has no parallel in nature so close as that of the similar extermination of one race of man by another...
Elsewhere in the book, Zinsser is the equal of our greatest contemporary popular science writers, but as the above passages prove, he has a rather unique style.
Customer Reviews:
The role of epidemics in history.......2005-07-18
A great overview of the role of infectious, particularly typhus, diseases in history. While the first couple of chapters almost put me off the book, with their discussion of the nature of biography, I'm glad I stuck with it to the second half of the book. Zinsser does a great job of explaining the difficulties in tracing the history of any infectious disease, and manages to make what could have been a highly technical discussion both readable and entertaining. Written in the 1930's, some of the information in this book is definitely dated. Specifically, modern antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals have radically changed the role of infectious diseases in our society. In addition, our understanding of viruses, genetics (including the discovery of DNA), and evolution have all advanced dramatically since the book was written. Even so, the historical analysis in this book is still enlightening and serves to highlight the often overlooked role of epidemics in history.
CONFUSING AT FIRST, BUT ULTIMATELY WORTH THE READ.......2005-07-05
There are books on plague, smallpox and even typhus; the worst of them all, according to Zinsser, who has written a funny but fascinating 'biography' of the disease. Typhus, Zinsser says, can first be traced to around the 1400's. It thrives in conditions of war and chaos and has been a scourge to mankind ever since. Only the second half of the book is completely on this disease, though. Readers taken by other microbial bad guys may find them discussed earlier. I believe most will eventually find this book worth reading.
The weakest section is certainly the first few chapters, up to about page 30. Here I must confess to not knowing what our author is talking about at all. He attempts to justify his book, and goes on to write page after page of nonsense. Whatever he is saying, I am sure the 'biography' would have been better without it.
Great 20th Century Classic.......2004-12-30
This has got to be one of the great classics of the 20th Century. Composed by one of the dedicated scientists who was instrumental in coming up with a vaccine against typhus, Dr. Zinsser provides us with a "biography of typhus fever" and at the same time an unorthodox view of human civilization, convincingly demonstrating that rats and lice have been at least as important as humans in creating history and in the spread of religion.
First published in 1935 the book's science is obviously dated, but it is Zinsser's style and genius as well as his interpretations of the relations between epidemics and the history of civilization that is important. This is a history, as Zinsser says, of the "little fellow creatures, which lurk in the dark corners and stalk us in the bodies of rats, mice, and all kinds of domestic animals; which fly and crawl with the insects, and waylay us in our food and drink and even in our love."
The book I've reread the most number of times.......2004-07-22
The copy of "Rats, Lice, and History" that I own was published in 1963, and this was the 33rd time it had been reissued since first appearing in 1934. I can't imagine Dr. Zinsser's grumpily discursive, masterfully written, and ultimately profound biography of typhus fever ever going completely out of print.
Stylistically the only work I can compare it to is Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". Where Gibbon occasionally dipped his pen in vinegar and excoriated the Christians, Zinsser dips his pen in hydrochloric acid and savages all of the quaint human customs that have kept Typhus alive and thriving. He shows much more affectionate sympathy for the louse than he does for the General or the Politician.
In the interests of research, Zinsser carried pill boxes of lice under his socks for weeks at a time before taking "advantage of them for scientific purposes." He is not able to tear himself away from these little creatures and address the true subject of his biography, i.e. the typhus germ, until Chapter 12!
However, the journey to Chapter 12 is well worth taking because along the way, Zinsser wittily savages modern biographers, psychoanalysis, astronomers and physicists who "scamper back to God" (Biologists evidently are much less prone to being 'born again'), and of course, all of the wars that have given Typhus countless opportunities to murder lice and humans alike.
"Rats, Lice, and History" should be required reading for would-be writers for its style, would-be Generals for its lessons on how soldiers really die, and for anyone else who is interested in a passionate, eminently witty, one-of-a-kind history of medicine. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title
The most fun you can have reading about typhus!.......2003-11-10
First let me say that after you read this book, you should then read Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, which is its logical successor.
Second: this book was written in the 1930's. This is before much of what we know about modern antibiotics was discovered - but that's one of the reasons you should read it: a reminder of just how recent modern medicine is, and how much power disease still has over us. This book is a stark reminder of how much hygiene has done to lengthen our lifespan, too - improving water supplies and eliminating rats from most households has done as much or more to extend the human lifespan as all the antibiotics we've invented.
Zinsser's list of what historical battles would have ended completely differently had not epidemic disease swept through one or another army is also chilling reading. Much of what we think of as inevitable human superiority was actually the work of bacteria, who didn't really care about our affairs. But despite the gloomy topic, as my title says, this book is the most fun you can possibly have while reading about epidemics. His humor is dry and biting - the deadpan recital of damages here, of misguided so-called scientists there... the editorial review above gives a couple such examples. The entire book is a fascinating read.
Some of the writing assumes that all readers were educated under an aristocratic university system, so that there are bits thrown in in Latin and Greek, not to mention French and other modern languages. The book can be read despite those, however. It might be tough going for high school students or even university undergrads, but would be a terrific addition to a history research paper, worth the slog for anyone willing to try it. And for those who have medicine and/or biology as an amateur interest, this is must reading.
Book Description
Where did this frightening disease come from? How did it spread? And will the world be any better prepared if it returns? For the first time, these and other questions are answered in this remarkable inside account of what really took place in those fateful months of 2003 when severe acute respiratory syndrome threatened to engulf the world.
Book Description
This thrilling historical account of the worst cholera outbreak in Victorian London is a brilliant exploration of how Dr. John Snow's solution revolutionized the way we think about disease, cities, science, and the modern world. Unabridged. 8 CDs.
Customer Reviews:
A Solid History of Science Book.......2007-09-07
This is the story of Dr. John Snow and the development of modern epidemiology and germ theory. As a history of science read, this book is very good. It has lots of drama and reads like a mystery. I did learn about Snows research into anesthesia, something I didn't know about. Most of the book centers around the cholera outbreak in London and Snow's work to counter the generally accepted miasma theory. This is a great book for young researchers to see how prevailing paradigms can be completely wrong, yet generally accepted and even unquestioned.
Thinking outside the box.......2007-09-06
This is a very interesting book on several levels. It is a fairly detailed case study of a cholera outbreak in London in 1854 and of the attempts of two dedicated men, one an esteemed physician and the other a neighborhood Anglican priest, to determine the cause, which turned out to be contaminated water. Once they do determine the cause, they run headlong into the established scientific orthodoxies of the day, which center around the "miasma" theory, a vague notion that such epidemics are caused by the overall environment in which they occur, sometimes the air, sometimes living conditions, and even, in a classic case of blaming the victims, by the characters of the victims. Eventually the scientific establishment is won over to the waterborne theory, but not after long hard fights, and not until after many more deaths could have been prevented.
The central points that I got out of this book are these:
1) Pre-scientific modes of thinking prevailed in the scientific establishment until well into the 19th century, or 1854 as we see here. The idea of empirically testing hypotheses seems not to have occurred to many scientists of the day.
2) The importance of "thinking outside the box," of not accepting conventional or established ideas just because they are established.
3) Revolutions in scientific thinking, or paradigm shifts, as Thomas Kuhn called them, rarely occur easily. Often the revolutionary idea is ignored, then ridiculed, then fought against, then eventually accepted, often by a later generation which had not been schooled in the conventional ways of thinking.
All told an interesting book, well recommended. I did not give it 5 stars because the author can at times move away from the immediate narrative to more abstract matters that can often be tedious. The book can be redundant as well. But altogether a good read.
Fascinating topic, redundant writing style, too little about the map.......2007-07-28
I will omit a synopsis of the book. This book has been assigned as incoming Freshman reading for my local university, thus my specific purpose in reading it. The general idea of an "historical medical mystery" presented in non-fiction form was a very reasonable one for a book. The quest for the origin of the Cholera epidemic in 1854 London by Whitehead and Snow was presented in a an exciting captivating way. The writing style was painful for me. Quite a bit of the material was repeated over and over in subsequent chapters. When I put the book down and picked it up again, I would wonder if I had lost my place (ie, a deja vu-type of experience) as I was certain I had read the material previously. Although there is some info on the making of the map, it was a small part of the book's focus. Truly, my greatest objection is the way the editor allowed the author to roam wildly. I believe this book will be viewed as a painful reading experience for 18 yo college students, not one that would offer stimulation for future reading of medical mysteries nor historical fiction. In general, I could not recommend this book to the general public; those interested in medicine/epidemics/certain mysteries, might enjoy it.
A rare find.......2007-07-24
This book was one of those rare finds tht do not come along very often. I read it in 2 days - I simply could not put it down. In the beginning of the book, when he was describing London in the early 19th century, I was reading along while crinkling my nose and whispering "oh my gosh" the whole time. I was simply entranced.
Johnson did start to pontificate a bit at the end - this could easily have been left out, and frankly I finally gave up reading all of his views at the end of the book. But, that is certainly no reason to miss this fantastic read ... and gritty and real historical view of what 19th century cities were TRULY like.
Overall a fantastic book!
Wonderful storyteller but with a broken crystal ball perhaps.......2007-07-09
This was a very well written book about a subject that could cause stomaches to turn. The way the author told the story kept it interesting in spite of the sordid details of the disease and it's ravages on the human body.
Several have commented about the ending of the book where the author takes out his crystal ball and sort of predicts the future of the urban environment, but even that I found fascinating, if not a bit hopeful.
He did touch on the use of fossil fuels, but he seems to think that term only means gasoline ( his mention of New York City being the greenest city on the planet since it's citizens have a low gasoline consumption ) when in fact fossil fuels include, but are not limited to; fuel oil, natural gas, coal, gasoline, diesel and turbine fuels. All of which New Yorkers are huge consumers.
If the cost of energy becomes as expensive as some pessimists suggest, then I think the huge cities will once again become dark, dirty places which will lose huge numbers of citizens.
This book also makes me wonder if 200 years from now algore will be today's Dr. John Snow or Edwin Chadwick in regards to Gullible Warming. My belief is that he and the other Gullible Warming fanatics will be no different than those who subscribed to the "miasma theory of disease" as detailed in this book.
A great read, highly recommended!!
Average customer rating:
- Very well done.
- WORST DISEASE OUTBREAK EVER
- A masterful summary
- Thorough and Scholarly Study of Crucial Issue
- It shocks in its gritty realism yet keeps you interested
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Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 14921650 (New Approaches to the Americas)
Noble David Cook
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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ASIN: 0521627303 |
Book Description
Noble David Cook explains, in vivid detail and sweeping scope, how the conquest of the New World was achieved by a handful of Europeans--not by the sword, but by deadly disease. The Aztec and Inca empires with their teeming millions were destroyed by a few hundred Europeans whose most important weapons, though the conquerors did not realize it at the time, were diseases previously unknown in the Americas. The end result of the colonizing experience in the Americas, whether of the Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, English, or French, was the collapse of native society.
Customer Reviews:
Very well done. .......2006-12-22
What role did disease play in shaping the conquest of the New World. This book accounts for more than just the Aztec invasion but covers the Caribbean and South America as well. It is very well written and takes an interesting look at the epidemiology of the region. For those interested in either the imperial conquests of Spain or the development of epidemiology this is a great book. Cook writes very well and in most places his epidemiological accounts are well supported.
WORST DISEASE OUTBREAK EVER.......2006-11-20
From discovery in 1492 to the mid 17th Century, the Americas were hit with one outbreak of infectious disease after another. Cook describes waves of smallpox, typhus, measles and influenza that killed off a continent of people. He is almost certainly right that these plagues destroyed more than the Spanish. Unfortunately he is unable to give any precise figures, or even anything close to it, as to how many actually perished. We can be confident, though, that this was the worst disease outbreak ever.
A masterful summary.......2004-06-16
This is simply the best account of the depopulation of Spanish America in the sixteenth century. It deals with the range of diseases involved, the regional death rates, the native responses, and the arguments pro and contra the high estimates of death.
Thorough and Scholarly Study of Crucial Issue.......2003-07-04
This is a very thorough and well organized study of one of the most important and ghastly events in human history. In the century following the European discovery of the Americas, approximately 90% of the native population perished. The agents of this demographic and cultural catastrophe were an apparently unceasing series of epidemics transmitted by European and African immigrants to the Western Hemisphere. Isolated for millenia from the Western Hemisphere, the native peoples of the Americas were virgin soil for smallpox, plague, influenza, measles, and a wide range of other serious infections. Native American susceptibility to epidemic disease and not any technological or cultural advantage was the key factor allowing Europeans to conquer the Americas. The conquest of Western Hemisphere and European dominance of its resources resulted in a huge economic and ecological windfall for European states. This windfall was a key factor propelling the global dominance of European culture and states.
Cook does an excellent job of systematically surveying the various epidemics and their demographic impacts. This is difficult because of the need to cover an extended period of time, a broad variety of regions, and the fragmentary nature of the data. This book is an excellent summary of available knowledge on this important topic. Very organized and written competently, this book will be the standard reference on this topic.
It shocks in its gritty realism yet keeps you interested.......2003-03-22
An excellent account of the history of the Americas, it focuses on the diseases while keeping in touch with both the cruelty suffered by the natives and the culture shock. It goes deeper into the less dramatic side (where less writers dwell in) and makes this a must read for anyone interested in the period.
Book Description
Leading experts explain infectious disease in an illustrated companion to the acclaimed American Museum of Natural History's exhibit. Epidemic! explores the world of infectious disease with essays by Nobel Prize-winning experts, profiles of scientists and researchers, and case studies. Written for the general reader, Epidemic! offers a clear understanding of the threat of infectious diseases, from the flu and mad cow disease to HIV and tuberculosis. Leaders of organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control cover topics from controlling outbreaks and the emergence of new diseases to the problem of drug resistance. Individual case studies explore disease around the world, including the work of Doctors Without Borders, the cultural dimension of malaria, solving the riddle of cholera, and the race to find the AIDS virus. Published to coincide with the American Museum of Natural History's new traveling exhibit called "the most impressive and informative exhibition the Museum has mounted in years" (New York Times), this book illustrates the important issues of diagnosis, treatment, and prevention throughout history and across cultures with more than eighty photographs and images. A resource section includes lists of organizations and Web sites, an annotated bibliography, and a glossary. Examining infectious disease from a natural history perspective, Epidemic! allows us to understand one of the most critical issues of the coming millennium.
Customer Reviews:
I felt itchy as I read it.......2000-04-05
It's one of those books, you know, where the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Not for the hypachondriacs out there but definately informative. I enjoyed the author's unique and interesting style, together with the wide variety and illustrations of diseases. Even non-medical students could read this and come away feeling they could diagnose a case of cholera.
Book Description
Alaska, 1925: the diptheria serum is 674 miles away. Without it, the people of Nome will not survive.
Nome, Alaska, sits on the edge of the Bering Sea two degrees below the Arctic Circle, and there are few more forbidding places on earth, especially in winter. Dr. Curtis Welch knew the signs of diphtheria, knew that his patients—many of them children—would die without a shipment of fresh serum.
The port was icebound and the nearest railhead was almost 700 miles away across mountains, rivers, and the treacherous ice of Norton Sound. A blizzard was brewing, and airplanes, in 1925, could not fly in such conditions. Only the dogs could do it. A relay was set up, and the drivers, many of them Native Alaskans, set off into the night at 60š below zero, often trusting their lead dogs to find the trail under feet of driven snow. The legendary heroism and endurance of the men and dogs in the Serum Run need no enhancement. Here, for the first time, their story is told in full. 34 b/w illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
The Cruelest Miles.......2007-10-11
I am doing genealogical research on one of the participants mention in "The Cruelest Miles" and found the book most help in narrowing my research. I found the book well written and documented.
Real Dogsledding.......2007-01-15
This is an excellent historical review of Alaska dogsledding years ago and how a medical epidemic was averted in the early 1900's. Being true, it is remarkable how interesting and exciting fact can be compared to fiction.
A superb book -- well-written, exciting, uplifting, true!.......2006-12-11
-I'd like to add another five-star vote for this book, which recounts the desperate emergency dogsled run to deliver diphtheria toxin to the town of Nome, AK, when it experienced a sudden epidemic during an Arctic blizzard (this journey served as the inspiration for the famous Iditarod race). At the time, Nome was hundreds of miles from the nearest point of transport, and dogsleds were the only way to get the serum through. So ... who could not love a well-told documentary about one of the most exciting legends of the North, featuring people like Wild Bill Shannon and Gunnar Kaasen, dogs like Balto and Togo, and a race to keep dozens of helpless children from dying? This story kept America riveted for days as the news came in. This was not a sure thing -- the authors show that only the most careful attention to detail, superlative "trail sense," and an amazing endurance could have delivered the serum. The dogs and humans did succeed in a race against time, and gave dog-sledding, and its blend of animal and human cooperation, one of its finest and most charming hours. The book expands the story by giving us the foreground and aftermath, and what a fine story it is.
-The influence of the Serum Run extended far beyond those whose lives were directly saved. At the time, our national public health immunization and innoculation program was also fighting for acceptance and publicity. The major public attention given to this dramatically successful race-against-time helped win that acceptance. In just a few years, diphtheria went from a relentless killer of several hundred children a year, to a dormant medical curiosity (many US health professionals finish their careers without seeing a case). The success and management of the public health program then encouraged an attempt to eradicate one of humanity's great scourges -- smallpox. This terrible disease has probably killed more people than the Plague or all the armies in history. The worldwide smallpox vaccination program became one of the great triumphs in medical history, as it overcame civil wars, social anarchy, and social misunderstandings to deliver the gift of Life. The last person died from natural smallpox over a decade ago, and one of humanity's deadliest scourges is now naturally extinct. So ... unbeknownst to them, the small band of dogs and drivers who brought the serum to Nome and gave preventive public health such a boost were forging a small but charming part in the great chain of events which led to the eradication of one of humanity's greatest killers.
-I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves a good story, especially one which shows what humans can do when the chips are way down. The authors have documented a victory of the human spirit that can bring joy to us all, and which has the elements found on the beloved statue of the Serum Dog in New York's Central Park: Endurance, Fidelity, Intelligence.
Very enjoyable.......2006-11-10
If you like history and/or dogs you will enjoy this book. Children enjoy books about Balto and this is the real thing.
Makes you want to hug your mutt.......2006-07-12
This book is not just for adventure readers, but for anyone who has a dog. The real heroes in the book are the dogs, with their selfless determination and spirit. I was amazed by the fortitude of the men in the trek to save a town's population. I would have enjoyed more narration on the actual trek itself, but the author does a great job with supporting information leading up to and after the events that this book is about.
Average customer rating:
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Smallpox in the New World (Epidemic!)
Stephanie True Peters
Manufacturer: Benchmark Books (NY)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
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ASIN: 0761416374 |
Books:
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- The Enormous Egg
- The European Economy since 1945: Coordinated Capitalism and Beyond (Princeton Economic History of the Western World)
- The First Man-Made Man: The Story of Two Sex Changes, One Love Affair, and a Twentieth-Century Medical Revolution
- The Intelligent Universe: AI, ET, and the Emerging Mind of the Cosmos
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- The Lost Colony (Artemis Fowl, Book 5)
- The Lost Colony (Artemis Fowl, Book 5)
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