The plague cycle : the unending war between humanity and infectious disease / Charles Kenny.
This history of mankind's battles against infectious diseases looks at how epidemics shaped empires and economies and how medical revolutions freed us from these cycles until new threats caused by changes in global trade and climate.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781982165338
- ISBN: 1982165332
- Physical Description: xiv, 304 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
- Edition: First Scribner hardcover edition.
- Publisher: New York : Scribner, 2021.
- Copyright: ©2021
Content descriptions
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-290) and index. |
Formatted Contents Note: | Malthus's ultimate weapon -- Civilization and the rise of infection -- Trade merges disease pools -- Pestilence conquers -- The exclusion instinct -- Cleaning up -- Salvation by needle -- It's good to get closer -- The revenge of infection? -- Abusing our best defenses -- Flattening the plague cycle -- Conclusion: Humanity's greatest victory. |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Epidemics > History. Communicable diseases > History. Diseases and history > Sociological aspects. Communicable diseases. Epidemics. |
Genre: | History. |
Show Only Available Copies
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Homer Public Library | 614.49 KEN (Text) | 000160139 | Nonfiction | Available | - |
The Plague Cycle : The Unending War Between Humanity and Infectious Disease
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Summary
The Plague Cycle : The Unending War Between Humanity and Infectious Disease
A vivid, sweeping history of mankind's battles with infectious disease, for readers of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Yuval Harari's Sapiens and John Barry's The Great Influenza . For four thousand years, the size and vitality of cities, economies, and empires were heavily determined by infection. Striking humanity in waves, the cycle of plagues set the tempo of civilizational growth and decline, since common response to the threat was exclusion--quarantining the sick or keeping them out. But the unprecedented hygiene and medical revolutions of the past two centuries have allowed humanity to free itself from the hold of epidemic cycles--resulting in an urbanized, globalized, and unimaginably wealthy world. However, our development has lately become precarious. Climate and population fluctuations and aspects of our prosperity such as global trade have left us more vulnerable than ever to newly emerging plagues. Greater global cooperation toward sustainable health is urgently required--such as the international efforts to harvest a Covid-19 vaccine--with millions of lives and trillions of dollars at stake. Written as colorful history, The Plague Cycle reveals the relationship between civilization, globalization, prosperity, and infectious disease over the past five millennia. It harnesses history, economics, and public health, and charts humanity's remarkable progress, providing a fascinating and timely look at the cyclical nature of infectious disease.