- 320 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
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 )âfor 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 exclusionâquarantining 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 cyclesâresulting 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 requiredâsuch as the international efforts to manufacture and distribute a COVID-19 vaccineâwith 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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Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Preface
- Chapter 1: Malthusâs Ultimate Weapon
- Chapter 2: Civilization and the Rise of Infection
- Chapter 3: Trade Merges Disease Pools
- Chapter 4: Pestilence Conquers
- Chapter 5: The Exclusion Instinct
- Chapter 6: Cleaning Up
- Chapter 7: Salvation by Needle
- Chapter 8: Itâs Good to Get Closer
- Chapter 9: The Revenge of Infection?
- Chapter 10: Abusing Our Best Defenses
- Chapter 11: Flattening the Plague Cycle
- Chapter 12: Conclusion: Humanityâs Greatest Victory
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Copyright