Plagues in World History

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Release : 2011-01-16
Genre : History
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Book Rating : 965/5 ( reviews)

Plagues in World History - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Plagues in World History write by John Aberth. This book was released on 2011-01-16. Plagues in World History available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Plagues in World History provides a concise, comparative world history of catastrophic infectious diseases, including plague, smallpox, tuberculosis, cholera, influenza, and AIDS. Geographically, these diseases have spread across the entire globe; temporally, they stretch from the sixth century to the present. John Aberth considers not only the varied impact that disease has had upon human history but also the many ways in which people have been able to influence diseases simply through their cultural attitudes toward them. The author argues that the ability of humans to alter disease, even without the modern wonders of antibiotic drugs and other medical treatments, is an even more crucial lesson to learn now that AIDS, swine flu, multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, and other seemingly incurable illnesses have raged worldwide. Aberth's comparative analysis of how different societies have responded in the past to disease illuminates what cultural approaches have been and may continue to be most effective in combating the plagues of today.

Viruses, Plagues, and History

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Release : 2020
Genre : Medical
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Book Rating : 789/5 ( reviews)

Viruses, Plagues, and History - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Viruses, Plagues, and History write by Michael B. A. Oldstone. This book was released on 2020. Viruses, Plagues, and History available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. "Here, my previous edition of Viruses, Plagues, & History is updated to reflect both progress and disappointment since that publication. This edition describes newcomers to the range of human infections, specifically, plagues that play important roles in this 21st century. The first is Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), an infection related to Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). SARS was the first new-found plague of this century. Zika virus, which is similar to yellow fever virus in being transmitted by mosquitos, is another of the recent scourges. Zika appearing for the first time in the Americas is associated with birth defects and a paralytic condition in adults. Lastly, illness due to hepatitis viruses were observed prominently during the second World War initially associated with blood transfusions and vaccine inoculations. Since then, hepatitis virus infections have afflicted millions of individuals, in some leading to an acute fulminating liver disease or more often to a life-long persistent infection. A subset of those infected has developed liver cancer. However, in a triumph of medical treatments for infectious diseases, pharmaceuticals have been developed whose use virtually eliminates such maladies. For example, Hepatitis C virus infection has been eliminated from almost all (>97%) of its victims. This incredible result was the by-product of basic research in virology as well as cell and molecular biology during which intelligent drugs were designed to block events in the hepatitis virus life-cycle"--

Plagues and Peoples

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Release : 2010-10-27
Genre : Social Science
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Book Rating : 663/5 ( reviews)

Plagues and Peoples - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Plagues and Peoples write by William McNeill. This book was released on 2010-10-27. Plagues and Peoples available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. 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 upon the Earth

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Release : 2021-10-12
Genre : History
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Book Rating : 722/5 ( reviews)

Plagues upon the Earth - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Plagues upon the Earth write by Kyle Harper. This book was released on 2021-10-12. Plagues upon the Earth available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. A sweeping germ’s-eye view of history from human origins to global pandemics Plagues upon the Earth is a monumental history of humans and their germs. Weaving together a grand narrative of global history with insights from cutting-edge genetics, Kyle Harper explains why humanity’s uniquely dangerous disease pool is rooted deep in our evolutionary past, and why its growth is accelerated by technological progress. He shows that the story of disease is entangled with the history of slavery, colonialism, and capitalism, and reveals the enduring effects of historical plagues in patterns of wealth, health, power, and inequality. He also tells the story of humanity’s escape from infectious disease—a triumph that makes life as we know it possible, yet destabilizes the environment and fosters new diseases. 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 humanity’s path to control over infectious disease—one 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 interdependent—and inseparable from the well-being of the planet itself. Putting the COVID-19 pandemic in perspective, Plagues upon the Earth tells the story of how we got here as a species, and it may help us decide where we want to go.

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

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Release : 2021-08-31
Genre : History
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Book Rating : 43X/5 ( reviews)

The History of the World in 100 Pandemics, Plagues and Epidemics - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The History of the World in 100 Pandemics, Plagues and Epidemics write by Paul Chrystal. This book was released on 2021-08-31. The History of the World in 100 Pandemics, Plagues and Epidemics available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. 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.