Quarantine Life from Cholera to COVID..., Kari Nixon
Quarantine Life from Cholera to COVID..., Kari Nixon
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Quarantine Life from Cholera to COVID-19
What Pandemics Teach Us About Parenting, Work, Life, and Communities from the 1700s to Today

Author: Kari Nixon

Narrator: Kris Carr

Unabridged: 6 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/15/2021


Synopsis

For readers of Mary Roach and Jared Diamond, an innovative look at the histories of different epidemics and what it meant for society, alongside what lessons different diseases have to teach us as society battles the novel coronavirus.

Throughout history, there have been numerous epidemics that have threatened mankind with destruction. Diseases have the ability to highlight our shared concerns across the ages, affecting every social divide from national boundaries, economic categories, racial divisions, and beyond. Whether looking at smallpox, HIV, Ebola, or COVID-19 outbreaks, we see the same conversations arising as society struggles with the all-encompassing question: What do we do now?

In “poignant yet relevant detail” (Niki Kapsambelis, author of The Inheritance), Quarantine Life from Cholera to COVID-19 demonstrates that these conversations have always involved the same questions of individual liberties versus the common good, debates about rushing new and untested treatments, considerations of whether quarantines are effective to begin with, what to do about healthy carriers, and how to keep trade circulating when society shuts down.

This vibrant social and medical history tracks different diseases and outlines their trajectory, what they meant for society, and societal questions each disease brought up, along with practical takeaways we can apply to current and future pandemics—so we can all be better prepared for whatever life throws our way.

About Kari Nixon

Kari Nixon is a professor specializing in social reactions to infectious diseases. She works at Whitworth University, where she teaches about social responses to contagion and quarantine in medical humanities and Victorian literature courses. Her work on public health has been published for lay audiences in HuffPostYES! Magazine, and CNN. Her academic book, Kept from All Contagion: Germ Theory, Disease, and the Dilemma of Human Contact, was published by SUNY University Press, and tracks the social history of humankind’s responses to disease in Victorian literature and popular culture. She regularly teaches about zombies, medical ethics, the problematic pressures on the health care system, and social justice issues for marginalized races and genders. She has edited numerous books on diseases in society.


Reviews

Goodreads review by MeMe

Throughout the book, I was absorbed in the story. Dr. Nixon draws parallels between what we are experiencing now during the pandemic of COVID-19 and the Victorian era, with the spread of disease during that time. In my opinion, I think she makes some excellent observations about how people are respo......more

Goodreads review by Rachel

I really enjoyed this book! Dr. Nixon uses her particular expertise in the Victorian era, and the spread of disease in that era, to draw correlations with what we are experiencing now during the COVID-19 pandemic. I find her observations on how people are reacting to this pandemic to be particularly......more

Goodreads review by Jo

I enjoyed this but have a few issues. I was reading this for funsies, not school, but felt like I had to take notes to keep track of the Lessons that were referred to repeatedly. I think this is a good mechanism for not repeating oneself (which she did a lot anyway) but maybe have an appendix with th......more

The title ___Quarantine Life from Cholera to Covid-19___led me to expect a social history of life during different plagues/pandemics. What was life like for people during these times? Who suffered most? How did the government, religion and other institutions react? This is not what the book does. (I......more