Description
Book SynopsisA collection of intimate and revelatory first-hand accounts of pandemics through the ages. Humanity has always been struck by pestilence and pandemics, from the plagues of ancient Egypt to the pox that ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages, to Covid-19. People living through the crises have always recorded what they saw, what they felt, and what they did. Some presented sober facts laced with anecdote, while others produced emotional outpourings; moralists speculated on the origins of the horror, poets distilled the suffering. Doctors described how they were able to advance their understanding of disease and scientists how to cure it, while survivors and the families of victims gave the inside story of the nightmare that develops when a long-feared disease enters your home or your body. There was a time when to read accounts of the Plague in Wittenburg by Martin Luther or the Great Plague of 1665 by Samuel Pepys scenes of anguish and woe, empty streets, quarantined houses, close
Trade Review'Insightful, moving and empathetic' - BBC History Magazine
'Fascinating… Through tracing the social, political and public-health responses evoked by disease-related disasters across the globe, readers can empathise with individuals separated by centuries and oceans… resonates strongly in today’s world' - Minerva
Table of ContentsIntroduction
1. Plagues of Egypt
2. Athenian plague – 5th century BC
3. Antonine Plague – 2nd century AD
4. Plague of Justinian – 6th century
5. Leprosy – 11–14th centuries
6. Black Death – 14th century
7. Sweating sickness – 15–16th centuries
8. Syphilis – 16th century
9. Cocolitztli epidemic, Mexico – 16th century
10. New World Smallpox – 16–17th century
11. Great Plague (or Marseilles plague) – 1660s
12. Russian Plague – 1770s
13. Cholera – 1850s
14. Flu – 1890s
15. Spanish flu – 1910s
16. Polio – 1911 – 1980s
17. Asian flu – 1950s
18. Hong Kong flu – 1968
19. AIDS – 1980s
20. Swine flu – 2000s
21. SARs, MERs et al. – 2010s
22. Covid-19 – 2020s
Conclusion Timeline of Catastrophes
Index
