Introduction
Chapter 1: Plague
Chapter 2: Smallpox
Chapter 3: Tuberculosis
Chapter 4: Cholera
Chapter 5: Influenza
Chapter 6: AIDS
Conclusion
Bibliography
John Aberth holds a PhD in medieval history from the University of Cambridge and is the author of numerous books on disease and the Middle Ages.
Medieval historian Aberth presents interactions of humans and
epidemics in case studies of six infectious diseases: plague,
smallpox, tuberculosis, cholera, influenza, and AIDS. He chose
these because they have known pathogens, can be fatal, and have had
long histories. Not merely narrative or descriptive, his study is
an attempt to demonstrate how human reactions and attitudes to
these diseases have in turn shaped how they affect human
communities. Going beyond an exercise in the social construction of
disease, Aberth's historical focus on the interaction of disease
and human response leads him to be optimistic about human abilities
to adjust to and even neutralize biomedical effects. The longest
chapter, on the plague, reflects the author's professional
specialty. The second longest chapter is on AIDS; remaining
chapters are 9-24 pages. Aberth's detailed attention to Islamic
understandings of and reactions to plague is especially welcome. He
opens each chapter by describing the disease and its effects, then
for each disease develops unique reactions and attitudes as well as
points introduced earlier, weaving an overall pattern of human
progress and intransigence, of connections made and opportunities
missed. Summing Up: Highly recommended.
*Choice Reviews*
The prospect of a slender volume about plagues in world history
would certainly be attractive to all those who teach either disease
history or world history. Moreover . . . it is an approach that
most students would embrace.
*Journal of Interdisciplinary History*
John Aberth offers a social interpretation of disease throughout
history using a comparative global framework. He has a lively
writing style, and each chapter is framed by lucid summary
descriptions of disease symptoms, progression, transmission,
treatments, and the respective debates. Plagues in World History
should be a profitable and successful textbook for undergraduate
students and general readers.
*Journal of World History*
The author presents an effective case for the diseases he has
chosen and provides the reader with current findings that allow for
interpretations of disease origins.
*The Historian*
John Aberth's admirable work on this topic, Plagues in World
History, deserves to be engaged with by anyone who is interested in
pandemics throughout time. . . .The reader will be most impressed
by the wealth of information about the various pandemics and the
efforts by medical researchers to combat them up to today . . .
[The author] persues his topic from a remarkably balanced position.
. . .Both historians and medical researchers will find this book a
fascinating read, an excellent digestion of what we know today
about plagues in world history.
*The Sixteenth Century Journal*
John Aberth has written a concise book that is both well-informed
and clear about contemporary medical understandings of epidemics,
and steadily conscious of their broader historical, political,
social, and economic contexts. In an age when such epidemics as
malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS affect millions, Aberth's arguments
have continuing importance.
*J. N. Hays, Loyola University, Chicago*
Seeking understanding of our societies and selves by reading and
writing books that omit all mention of the essential fact of wars
would strike us as a glaring oversight. Yet our shelves are crammed
with books that never mention epidemics, an equally vital force in
human history. Plagues in World History is the authoritative and
fascinating antidote to that error.
*Alfred W. Crosby, University of Texas at Austin*
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