Epidemics and Pandemics

Their Impacts on Human History

Jo N. Hays

• Publisher: ABC-CLIO
• Year: 2005
• Print ISBN:
  9781851096589
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9798216080602
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Balancing current and historical issues, this volume of essays covers the most significant worldwide epidemics from the Black Death to AIDS.

Great pandemics have resulted in significant death tolls and major social disruption. Other "virgin soil" epidemics have struck down large percentages of populations that had no previous contact with newly introduced microbes. Written by a specialist in the history of science and medicine, the essays in this volume discuss pandemics and epidemics affecting Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia, covering diseases in ancient times to the present. Each entry combines biological and social information to form a picture of the significance of epidemics that have shaped world history.

The essays cover the areas of major pandemics, virgin soil epidemics, disruptive shocks, and epidemics of symbolic interest. Included are facts about what an epidemic was, where and when it occurred, how contemporaries reacted, and the unresolved historical issues remaining. This fascinating material is written at a level suitable for scholars and the general public.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• 1 Epidemic in Athens, 430–427 B.C.E.
• 2 Malaria in Ancient Rome
• 3 Plague of the Antonines
• 4 First Plague Pandemic, 541–747
• 5 Smallpox Epidemic in Japan, 735–737
• 6 Leprosy in Medieval Europe
• 7 Second Plague Pandemic, 1346–1844
• 8 “French Disease” in Sixteenth-Century Europe
• 9 Epidemics in Sixteenth-Century America
• 10 Epidemics and the Thirty Years’ War, 1618–1648
• 11 Plague in Italian Cities, 1630s
• 12 Epidemics in China, 1640–1644
• 13 Plague in London, 1665
• 14 Smallpox in Iceland, 1707–1709
• 15 Plague in Marseilles, 1720–1722
• 16 Smallpox in Boston, 1721
• 17 Smallpox in Eighteenth-Century Europe
• 18 Plague in Moscow, 1771
• 19 Influenza Pandemic, 1781–1782
• 20 Yellow Fever in Hispaniola, 1793–1804
• 21 Yellow Fever in Philadelphia, 1793
• 22 First Cholera Pandemic, 1817–1824
• 23 Consumption in the Nineteenth Century
• 24 Second Cholera Pandemic, 1827–1835
• 25 Third Cholera Pandemic, 1839–1856
• 26 “Fevers” and the Great Famine in Ireland, 1846–1850
• 27 Typhoid Fever in Cities, 1850–1920
• 28 Yellow Fever in New Orleans, 1853
• 29 Fourth Cholera Pandemic, 1863–1875
• 30 Carriõn’s Disease in Peru, 1870–1871
• 31 Smallpox in Europe, 1870–1875
• 32 Measles in Fiji, 1875
• 33 Fifth Cholera Pandemic, 1881–1896
• 34 Influenza Pandemic, 1889–1890
• 35 Cholera Epidemic in Hamburg, 1892
• 36 Third Plague Pandemic, 1894–?
• 37 Sixth Cholera Pandemic, 1899–1923
• 38 Sleeping Sickness in East Central Africa, 1900–1905
• 39 Typhoid Mary’s “Epidemics”
• 40 Cholera Epidemic in Naples, 1910–1911
• 41 Poliomyelitis in the United States, 1916
• 42 Influenza Pandemic, 1918–1919
• 43 Lung Cancer in the United States, Mid-Twentieth Century
• 44 Poliomyelitis in the united States, 1945–1955
• 45 Seventh Cholera Pandemic, 1961–Present
• 46 Aids in the United States, 1980s
• 47 Contemporary Aids Pandemic
• 48 The Mad Cow Crisis and Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies, 1985–Present
• 49 Contemporary Malaria
• 50 Contemporary Tuberculosis
• Epilogue
• Some General Books On Epidemics
• Glossary
• Index
• About the Author