Poison— invisible, unknown, hard to detect and deadly— taps into hard-wired anxieties about the risks of the world around us. From ancient times to the modern age, it has always created more fear than any other threats.In A Basilisk Glance: Poisoners from Plato to Putin, author Robert Templer takes us through the dark maze of poison. He traces its path from when Hercules dipped his arrows in the blood from the severed head of the Hydra to the use of chemical weapons in the Iran-Iraq War in 1980s, from the death of Socrates to the use of toxins as a weapon of assassination, from the mass suicide of Jonestown in 1979 to the sarin attack in the Tokyo metro system.Today, as the war in Ukraine rages, we are reminded of the use of radioactive and nerve weapons by Russian President Vladimir Putin to kill his opponents. His targets— like other victims of poison through the ages— know that they are never safe; a cup of tea, a door handle or even their own underwear might be tainted with a deadly toxin.
- 448 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
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Table of contents
- INTRODUCTION: THE EMPTY SAND
- PART ONE
- 1. THE SOUL-HUNTING FOG
- 2. AN EVIL NOTORIETY
- 3. WHAT A SPLENDID RESULT OF REASON
- 4. POISONING WELLS
- 5. PLANTS DIE, SHRUBS WITHER, DOGS RUN MAD
- 6. MORE WINE, MORE EXCITEMENT
- 7. GAZING AT PISS
- 8. WITHIN HALF A DEGREE OF POISON
- 9. FESTE, FARINE, FORCHE
- PART TWO
- 10. EXCELLENT AGAINST ALL VENOME
- 11. EMERALDS AND HAIRBALLS
- 12. ARSENIC
- 13. THIS ALL BLASTING TREE
- 14. TO TRAFFIC IN SOULS
- PART THREE
- 15. A COLD-BLOODED CALCULATION
- 16. THE SONG OF SARIN THE MAGICIAN
- 17. MEN IN BLACK
- 18. THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE
- 19. GOT MILK?
- POSTSCRIPT: THE BASILISK
- Acknowledgements
- EndNotes
- Bibliography
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Yes, you can access A Basilisk Glance by Robert Templer in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Social History. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.