Plagues and Peoples, Volume 2, Issue 1: Investigating the Impact of Disease on Human History

TA: An excellent book on how disease affected human history, human progress and the ecosystem at large. Proposes a compelling theory of precarious ecological balance that when upset has serious consequences. Very well written with lots of facts in support of the main argument. Puts the coronavirus pandemic in perspective. One of the strongest books on the history of infectious disease and its impact

Germany on Jun 05, 2021

Andre Noel: A very interesting read during the coved 19 pandemic. Although a little bit dated, it provides good background on epidemics and their role in human life. Humans are part of nature and cannot avoid being attacked by micro-parasitism (bacteria and viruses). They are also their own worst predators, a phenomena named macro-parasitism by the author.

Canada on Apr 16, 2020

A. Lewis: It arrived well packed and safe and I am now reading it - the style is nice and very readable even though the book is quite old, it is well worth reading.

United Kingdom on Apr 24, 2019

Samuel W. Coulbourn: Germs and Plagues

William H. McNeill, Plagues and Peoples, New York: Anchor Books, 1976, 1998
How did the Spanish Conquistadores, with a few hundred men, conquer the Aztecs and Incas—developed civilizations numbering in the millions? How did Cortez overcome Montezuma and the Aztecs in Mexico? How did Pizarro conquer the Incas of Peru?
How did the religions of the Indians of South America disappear so rapidly, and why did millions accept Christianity?
The lopsided impact of infectious diseases upon the Indians of South America offered a key to the military and cultural conquest, and that is the key that McNeill uses to examine the whole course of human history. This is the story of what happens when people who have grown immune to a disease contact a population that has never been exposed to that disease. The consequences can be disastrous.
This book aims to bring the history of exposure to infectious disease into the realm of historical explanation by showing how patterns of disease have affected human affairs.
McNeill begins with a few key concepts, and the first is disease and parasites. We are parasites, and host for parasites.
We host...

United States on Sep 07, 2016

Meg N: This 1997 revision of the original 1976 Plagues and Peoples appeared the same year as the Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel, and both contributed greatly to tracking known vectors thoughtfully across the globe, ancient to modern, to give us a more even-handed grasp of history. Most Americans are aware of the immense role that previously unknown European diseases played in the European takeover of the Americas, but this fascinating book follows the role of diseases in the fall of the Roman Empire, the success of the Mongol Empire, the great 17th-century European epidemics, the fragility of caste systems in India, and the role of medicine in the modern world where AIDS, Ebola, and vaccinations color our global interconnectedness. The science is well-explained, from microparasites to macroparasites, viruses to bacteria, and the transition of sporadic outbreaks to widespread epidemics to routine childhood diseases and vaccinations. Careful reading of the impact of mass movements of tribes and peoples in this 295-page book might yield lessons applicable in current refugee situations. There are 48 pages of notes, an impressive list of the epidemics in Chinese history, and a...

Japan on Sep 18, 2015

Oparazzo: Dass nicht die Europäer, sondern deren mitgebrachte Krankheiten die Ureinwohner Amerikas besiegt und nahezu ausgerottet haben, weiß so gut wie jeder. Weniger bekannt ist die Tatsache, dass Seuchen die Menschheitsgeschichte vom Beginn an maßgeblich geprägt haben, bis sich im 18. Jahrhundert endlich eine empirische, evidenzbasierte Medizin entwickelte, mit der Ärzte den Patienten zum ersten Mal mehr nützten als schadeten. Mit der Entdeckung der Krankheitskeime wurde schließlich Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts der Grundstein dafür gelegt, dass Seuchen heute nicht mehr die Geschicke ganzer Völker bestimmen (für den Zufall, dass man heute lebt, ist man im Verlauf der Lektüre immer wieder dankbar).

William McNeill schreibt in seinem Standardwerk "Plagues und Peoples" einen großen Teil der Geschichte wenn nicht neu, dann zumindest unter einem ungewohnten Blickwinkel: Immer wieder haben Mikroparasiten (Viren, Bakterien, Plasmodien) Kriege entschieden, entweder indem angegriffene Völker den fremden Keimen nichts entgegensetzen konnten (s.o.), oder indem sie die Angreifer (McNeill hat hier den passenden Begriff "Makroparasiten" geprägt, den er auch auf Landesherrscher,...

Germany on Dec 07, 2013

Tim F. Martin: _Plagues and Peoples_ by William H. McNeill is an absolutely brilliant work of history; though originally published in 1977 it is still insightful and influential. Just as Brian Fagan in _The Long Summer_ viewed human history through the prism of climatic change, McNeill in this work showed how the world got to be the way it is in large part thanks to disease. How the various communities of humans in the world came to an accommodation with those infectious diseases that were able to reach epidemic proportions, when and whether or not a disease went from a being epidemic to endemic (milder, generally a childhood disease) in a given population, was a major factor in world history and one that was often overlooked. According to McNeill, for too long the role of infectious disease in world history has not been properly taken into account, historians for many decades viewing epidemics as "accidents" and infection (and fear of infection) often having been treated as "unpredictable" and "incomprehensible," as disease "spoiled the web of interpretation and explanation" that historians used to understand the human experience. McNeill sought to chronicle man's history with infectious...

United States on May 24, 2005