The Plague Cycle
eBook - ePub

The Plague Cycle

The Unending War Between Humanity and Infectious Disease

  1. 320 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Plague Cycle

The Unending War Between Humanity and Infectious Disease

About this book

A vivid, sweeping, and "fact-filled" ( Booklist, starred review) history of mankind's battles with infectious disease that "contextualizes the COVID-19 pandemic" ( Publishers Weekly )—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 factors 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 manufacture and distribute a COVID-19 vaccine—with millions of lives and trillions of dollars at stake."A timely, lucid look at the role of pandemics in history" ( Kirkus Reviews ), 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 astute look at the cyclical nature of infectious disease.

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Yes, you can access The Plague Cycle by Charles Kenny in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & World History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Preface
  4. Chapter 1: Malthus’s Ultimate Weapon
  5. Chapter 2: Civilization and the Rise of Infection
  6. Chapter 3: Trade Merges Disease Pools
  7. Chapter 4: Pestilence Conquers
  8. Chapter 5: The Exclusion Instinct
  9. Chapter 6: Cleaning Up
  10. Chapter 7: Salvation by Needle
  11. Chapter 8: It’s Good to Get Closer
  12. Chapter 9: The Revenge of Infection?
  13. Chapter 10: Abusing Our Best Defenses
  14. Chapter 11: Flattening the Plague Cycle
  15. Chapter 12: Conclusion: Humanity’s Greatest Victory
  16. Acknowledgments
  17. About the Author
  18. Notes
  19. Bibliography
  20. Index
  21. Copyright