The Power Of Plagues

Author : Irwin W. Sherman
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1683670019
Total Pages : 448 pages
Book Rating : 4.18/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Power of Plagues written by Irwin W. Sherman and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-07-02 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Power of Plagues presents a rogues' gallery of epidemic- causing microorganisms placed in the context of world history. Author Irwin W. Sherman introduces the microbes that caused these epidemics and the people who sought (and still seek) to understand how diseases and epidemics are managed. What makes this book especially fascinating are the many threads that Sherman weaves together as he explains how plagues past and present have shaped the outcome of wars and altered the course of medicine, religion, education, feudalism, and science. Cholera gave birth to the field of epidemiology. The bubonic plague epidemic that began in 1346 led to the formation of universities in cities far from the major centers of learning (and hot spots of the Black Death) at that time. And the Anopheles mosquito and malaria aided General George Washington during the American Revolution. Sadly, when microbes have inflicted death and suffering, people have sometimes responded by invoking discrimination, scapegoating, and quarantine, often unfairly, against races or classes of people presumed to be the cause of the epidemic. Pathogens are not the only stars of this book. Many scientists and physicians who toiled to understand, treat, and prevent these plagues are also featured. Sherman tells engaging tales of the development of vaccines, anesthesia, antiseptics, and antibiotics. This arsenal has dramatically reduced the suffering and death caused by infectious diseases, but these plague protectors are imperfect, due to their side effects or attenuation and because microbes almost invariably develop resistance to antimicrobial drugs. The Power of Plagues provides a sobering reminder that plagues are not a thing of the past. Along with the persistence of tuberculosis, malaria, river blindness, and AIDS, emerging and remerging epidemics continue to confound global and national public health efforts. West Nile virus, Lyme disease, and Ebola and Zika viruses are just some of the newest rogues to plague humans. The argument that civilization has been shaped to a significant degree by the power of plagues is compelling, and The Power of Plagues makes the case in an engaging and informative way that will be satisfying to scientists and non-scientists alike.

Author : Kyle Harper
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691224722
Total Pages : 704 pages
Book Rating : 4.25/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Plagues upon the Earth written by Kyle Harper and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 704 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Author : Joshua S. Loomis
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 403 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Epidemics written by Joshua S. Loomis and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2018-01-18 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book comprehensively reviews the 10 most influential epidemics in history, going beyond morbid accounts of symptoms and statistics to tell the often forgotten stories of what made these epidemics so calamitous. Unlike other books on epidemics, which either focus on the science behind how microbes cause disease or tell first-person accounts of one particular disease, Epidemics: The Impact of Germs and Their Power over Humanity takes a holistic approach to explaining how these diseases have shaped who we are as a society. Each of the worst epidemic diseases is discussed from the perspective of how it has been a causative agent of change with respect to our history, religious traditions, social interactions, and technology. In looking at world history through the lens of epidemic diseases, readers will come to appreciate how much we owe to the oldest and smallest parasites. Adults and students interested in science and history—and especially anyone who appreciates a good story and has a healthy curiosity for the lesser-known facts of life—will find this book of interest. Health-care workers will also benefit greatly from this text, as will college students majoring in biology or a pre-health field.

Author : William McNeill
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0307773663
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.61/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Plagues and Peoples written by William McNeill and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2010-10-27 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Author : Ann Herring
Publisher : Berg
ISBN 13 : 1847885470
Total Pages : 430 pages
Book Rating : 4.70/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Plagues and Epidemics written by Ann Herring and published by Berg. This book was released on 2010-05-15 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Author : John Aberth
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN 13 : 9781442207967
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.65/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Plagues in World History written by John Aberth and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2011-01-16 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Plagues in World History provides a concise, comparative world history of catastrophic infectious diseases, including plague, smallpox, tuberculosis, cholera, influenza, and AIDS. John Aberth considers not only their varied impact but also the many ways in which people have been able to influence diseases simply through their cultural attitudes. Our ability to alter disease, even without modern medical treatments, is even more crucial lesson now that AIDS, swine flu, multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, and other seemingly incurable illnesses have raged worldwide. The author'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.

Author : Peter Moore
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0061374210
Total Pages : 148 pages
Book Rating : 4.10/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Little Book of Pandemics written by Peter Moore and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2008-02-12 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the world waits once again to see if the latest virus will decimate the population, The Little Black of Pandemics looks at the greatest natural killers of all time. This concise and intelligent look at the most deadly viral and bacterial diseases includes expert opinion on likely future outbreaks, method of contagion, identification of systems, and likelihood of survival. Includes influenza, smallpox, West Nile virus, AIDS, Ebola, SARS, plague, typhus, cholera, tuberculosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, leprosy, meningitis, vCJD, hepatitis, yellow fever, Lassa fever, and many more.

Author : John Rhodes
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 1137381310
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.16/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The End of Plagues written by John Rhodes and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2013-09-24 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the turn of the twentieth century, smallpox claimed the lives of two million people per year. By 1979, the disease had been eradicated and victory was declared across the globe. Yet the story of smallpox remains the exception, as today a host of deadly contagions, from polio to AIDS, continue to threaten human health around the world. Spanning three centuries, The End of Plagues weaves together the discovery of vaccination, the birth and growth of immunology, and the fight to eradicate the world's most feared diseases. From Edward Jenner's discovery of vaccination in 1796, to the early nineteenth-century foundling voyages in which chains of orphans, vaccinated one by one, were sent to colonies around the globe, to the development of polio vaccines and the stockpiling of smallpox as a biological weapon in the Cold War, world-renown immunologist John Rhodes charts our fight against these plagues, and shows how vaccinations gave humanity the upper hand. Today, aid groups including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization have made the eradication of polio a priority, and Rhodes takes us behind the scenes to witness how soon we may be celebrating the eradication of polio.

Author : Michael B. A. Oldstone
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0190056789
Total Pages : 513 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Viruses, Plagues, and History written by Michael B. A. Oldstone and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "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"--

Author : Bruce S. Thornton
Publisher : Open Road Media
ISBN 13 : 1497648939
Total Pages : 188 pages
Book Rating : 4.37/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Plagues of the Mind written by Bruce S. Thornton and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2014-05-13 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stirring and sobering diagnosis of the challenges that confront anyone laboring to renew America’s tradition of ordered liberty. Classicist Bruce Thornton’s Plagues of the Mind is a forceful vindication of the West’s tradition of rational, critical inquiry—a legacy now largely jettisoned in favor of a host of new deities, environmentalism, feminism, primitivism, New Age, and the cult of the therapeutic among them.