Plagues and Epidemics

Plagues and Epidemics
Author: Ann Herring
Publisher: Berg
Total Pages: 430
Release: 2010-05-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1847885470

Whether in popular media or scientific literature, plagues are currently a topic of tremendous interest and anxiety. Through an excellent range of case studies, this volume provides a broad and engaging study of the plague and its effects both historically and today.

Plagues in the Nation

Plagues in the Nation
Author: Polly J. Price
Publisher: Beacon Press
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2022-05-10
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0807043494

An expert legal review of the US government’s response to epidemics through history—with larger conclusions about COVID-19, and reforms needed for the next plague In this narrative history of the US through major outbreaks of contagious disease, from yellow fever to the Spanish flu, from HIV/AIDS to Ebola, Polly J. Price examines how law and government affected the outcome of epidemics—and how those outbreaks in turn shaped our government. Price presents a fascinating history that has never been fully explored and draws larger conclusions about the gaps in our governmental and legal response. Plagues in the Nation examines how our country learned—and failed to learn—how to address the panic, conflict, and chaos that are the companions of contagion, what policies failed America again and again, and what we must do better next time.

The History of the World in 100 Pandemics, Plagues and Epidemics

The History of the World in 100 Pandemics, Plagues and Epidemics
Author: Paul Chrystal
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
Total Pages: 619
Release: 2021-08-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 139900543X

This “timely, topical, informative [and] exceptionally well written” history explores the impact of disease from prehistoric plagues to Covid-19 (Midwest Book Review). Historian Paul Chrystal charts how human civilization has grappled with successive pandemics, plagues, and epidemics across millennia. Ranging from prehistory to the present day, this volume begins by defining what constitutes a pandemic or epidemic, taking a close look at 20 historic examples: including cholera, influenza, bubonic plague, leprosy, measles, smallpox, malaria, AIDS, MERS, SARS, Zika, Ebola and, of course, Covid-19. Some less well-known, but equally significant and deadly contagions such as Legionnaires’ Disease, psittacosis, polio, the Sweat, and dancing plague, are also covered. Chrystal provides comprehensive information on each disease, including epidemiology, sources and vectors, morbidity, and mortality, as well as governmental and societal responses, and their political, legal, and scientific consequences. He sheds light on how public health crises have shaped history—particularly in the realms of medical and scientific research and vaccine development. Chrystal also examines myths about infectious diseases, and the role of the media, including social media.

Epidemics and Pandemics [2 volumes]

Epidemics and Pandemics [2 volumes]
Author: Joseph P. Byrne
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 774
Release: 2021-01-27
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1440863792

Beyond their impact on public health, epidemics shape and are shaped by political, economic, and social forces. This book examines these connections, exploring key topics in the study of disease outbreaks and delving deep into specific historical and contemporary examples. From the Black Death that ravaged Europe in the 14th century to the influenza pandemic following World War I and the novel strain of coronavirus that made "social distancing" the new normal, wide-scale disease outbreaks have played an important role throughout human history. In addition to the toll they take on human lives, epidemics have spurred medical innovations, toppled governments, crippled economies, and led to cultural revolutions. Epidemics and Pandemics: From Ancient Plagues to Modern-Day Threats provides readers with a holistic view of the terrifying—and fascinating—topic of epidemics and pandemics. In Volume 1, readers will discover what an epidemic is, how it emerges and spreads, what diseases are most likely to become epidemics, and how disease outbreaks are tracked, prevented, and combatted. They will learn about the impacts of such modern factors as global air travel and antibiotic resistance, as well as the roles played by public health agencies and the media. Volume 2 offers detailed case studies that explore the course and lasting significance of individual epidemics and pandemics throughout history.

Plagues and Peoples

Plagues and Peoples
Author: William McNeill
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2010-10-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0307773663

The history of disease is the history of humankind: an interpretation of the world as seen through the extraordinary impact—political, demographic, ecological, and psychological—of disease on cultures. "A book of the first importance, a truly revolutionary work." —The New Yorker 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, Plagues and Peoples is "a brilliantly conceptualized and challenging achievement" (Kirkus Reviews). Upon its original publication, Plagues and Peoples was an immediate critical and popular success, offering a radically new interpretation of world history. With the identification of AIDS in the early 1980s, another chapter was added to this chronicle of events, which William McNeill explores in his introduction to this edition. Thought-provoking, well-researched, and compulsively readable, Plagues and Peoples is essential reading—that rare book that is as fascinating as it is scholarly, as intriguing as it is enlightening.

Plagues, Pandemics and Viruses

Plagues, Pandemics and Viruses
Author: Heather E. Quinlan
Publisher: Visible Ink Press
Total Pages: 810
Release: 2020-11-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1578597366

Pandemics can come in waves—like tidal waves. They change societies. They disrupt life. They end lives. As far back as 3000 B.C.E. (the Bronze Age), plagues have stricken mankind. COVID-19 is just the latest example, but history shows that life continues. It shows that knowledge and social cooperation can save lives. Viruses are neither alive nor dead and are the closest thing we have to zombies. Their only known function is to replicate themselves, which can have devastating consequences on their hosts. Most, but not all, bacteria are good for us. Some are truly horrific, including those that caused the bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic plagues. And viruses and bacteria are always morphing, evolving, and changing, making them hard to treat. Plagues, Pandemics, and Viruses: From the Plague of Athens to Covid 19 is an enlightening, and sometimes frightening, recounting of the destruction wrought by disease, but it also looks at what man has done and can do to overcome even the deadliest and bleakest of contagions. More than two years in the making, author Heather E. Quinlan was deep into her research and writing when COVID hit. She quickly saw the similarities to plagues from the past. Plagues, Pandemics, and Viruses: From the Plague of Athens to Covid 19 not only covers the history, causes, medical treatments, human responses, and aftermath of the world’s biggest pandemics, but it also draws parallels to the present. It chronicles the diseases that have inflicted man throughout the millennia, including ... The differences (and similarities) between COVID-19 and other coronaviruses The bubonic plague/black plague, which wiped out 30% to 60% of Europe’s population The devastation to the indigenous population during the European colonization of the Americas The 1918 Spanish Flu, which did not come from Spain How disease “inspired” The Canterbury Tales, Wuthering Heights, the pop art of Keith Haring, and other art and literature AIDS’ “patient zero” How climate change will affect future pandemics The aftermath of various pandemics Several modern diseases making a comeback ... and much, much more. Along with investigating some of history’s most notorious pandemics and diseases, Plagues, Pandemics, and Viruses takes a look at human resilience and what we’ve learned from the past. It looks at how science, the medical community, and governments have conquered or mitigated most epidemics even before they can turn into pandemics. It reviews the science of pandemics, preventative measures, and medical interventions and it includes an exclusive interview with Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as well as other experts in the medical community. Richly illustrated, it also has a helpful bibliography and extensive index. This invaluable resource is designed to help you understand, and protect you from, plagues, pandemics, epidemics, viruses, and disease!

Plagues Upon the Earth

Plagues Upon the Earth
Author: Kyle Harper
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 704
Release: 2021-10-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 069119212X

"Panoramic in scope, Plagues upon the Earth traces the role of disease in the transition to farming, the spread of cities, the advance of transportation, and the stupendous increase in human population. Harper offers a new interpretation of humanitys path to control over infectious diseaseone where rising evolutionary threats constantly push back against human progress, and where the devastating effects of modernization contribute to the great divergence between societies. The book reminds us that human health is globally interdependentand inseparable from the well-being of the planet itself."--

Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics, and Plagues [2 volumes]

Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics, and Plagues [2 volumes]
Author: Joseph P. Byrne
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 917
Release: 2008-09-30
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1573569593

Editor Joseph P. Byrne, together with an advisory board of specialists and over 100 scholars, research scientists, and medical practitioners from 13 countries, has produced a uniquely interdisciplinary treatment of the ways in which diseases pestilence, and plagues have affected human life. From the Athenian flu pandemic to the Black Death to AIDS, this extensive two-volume set offers a sociocultural, historical, and medical look at infectious diseases and their place in human history from Neolithic times to the present. Nearly 300 entries cover individual diseases (such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, Ebola, and SARS); major epidemics (such as the Black Death, 16th-century syphilis, cholera in the nineteenth century, and the Spanish Flu of 1918-19); environmental factors (such as ecology, travel, poverty, wealth, slavery, and war); and historical and cultural effects of disease (such as the relationship of Romanticism to Tuberculosis, the closing of London theaters during plague epidemics, and the effect of venereal disease on social reform). Primary source sidebars, over 70 illustrations, a glossary, and an extensive print and nonprint bibliography round out the work.

Epidemics and Society

Epidemics and Society
Author: Frank M. Snowden
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 603
Release: 2019-10-22
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0300249144

A wide-ranging study that illuminates the connection between epidemic diseases and societal change, from the Black Death to Ebola This sweeping exploration of the impact of epidemic diseases looks at how mass infectious outbreaks have shaped society, from the Black Death to today. In a clear and accessible style, Frank M. Snowden reveals the ways that diseases have not only influenced medical science and public health, but also transformed the arts, religion, intellectual history, and warfare. A multidisciplinary and comparative investigation of the medical and social history of the major epidemics, this volume touches on themes such as the evolution of medical therapy, plague literature, poverty, the environment, and mass hysteria. In addition to providing historical perspective on diseases such as smallpox, cholera, and tuberculosis, Snowden examines the fallout from recent epidemics such as HIV/AIDS, SARS, and Ebola and the question of the world’s preparedness for the next generation of diseases.

Disease Maps

Disease Maps
Author: Tom Koch
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2011-06-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0226449408

In the seventeenth century, a map of the plague suggested a radical idea—that the disease was carried and spread by humans. In the nineteenth century, maps of cholera cases were used to prove its waterborne nature. More recently, maps charting the swine flu pandemic caused worldwide panic and sent shockwaves through the medical community. In Disease Maps, Tom Koch contends that to understand epidemics and their history we need to think about maps of varying scale, from the individual body to shared symptoms evidenced across cities, nations, and the world. Disease Maps begins with a brief review of epidemic mapping today and a detailed example of its power. Koch then traces the early history of medical cartography, including pandemics such as European plague and yellow fever, and the advancements in anatomy, printing, and world atlases that paved the way for their mapping. Moving on to the scourge of the nineteenth century—cholera—Koch considers the many choleras argued into existence by the maps of the day, including a new perspective on John Snow’s science and legacy. Finally, Koch addresses contemporary outbreaks such as AIDS, cancer, and H1N1, and reaches into the future, toward the coming epidemics. Ultimately, Disease Maps redefines conventional medical history with new surgical precision, revealing that only in maps do patterns emerge that allow disease theories to be proposed, hypotheses tested, and treatments advanced.