Epidemics and Society, Frank M. Snowden
Epidemics and Society, Frank M. Snowden
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Epidemics and Society
From the Black Death to the Present

Author: Frank M. Snowden

Narrator: Eric Jason Martin

Unabridged: 23 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/15/2020


Synopsis

A "brilliant and sobering" (Paul Kennedy, Wall Street Journal) look at the history and human costs of pandemic outbreaks

As seen on 60 Minutes

The World Economic Forum #1 book to read for context on the coronavirus outbreak

This sweeping exploration of the impact of epidemic diseases looks at how mass infectious outbreaks have shaped society, from the Black Death to today, and in a new preface addresses the global threat of COVID-19. In a clear and accessible style, Frank M. Snowden reveals the ways that diseases have not only influenced medical science and public health, but also transformed the arts, religion, intellectual history, and warfare.

A multidisciplinary and comparative investigation of the medical and social history of the major epidemics, this volume touches on themes such as the evolution of medical therapy, plague literature, poverty, the environment, and mass hysteria. In addition to providing historical perspective on diseases such as smallpox, cholera, and tuberculosis, Snowden examines the fallout from recent epidemics such as HIV/AIDS, SARS, and Ebola and the question of the world's preparedness for the next generation of diseases.

About Frank M. Snowden

Frank M. Snowden is Andrew Downey Orrick Professor Emeritus of History and History of Medicine at Yale University. His books include The Conquest of Malaria: Italy, 1900-1962 and Naples in the Time of Cholera, 1884-1911.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Redpoet on May 22, 2020

For decades now, I have been a sort of amateur epidemiologist emphasizing in pandemics and emerging infectious diseases. Every pandemic obviously has a biological and health related aspect. They also have a social and an economic aspect. A pandemic cannot be separated from cultural, historical geogr......more

Goodreads review by Atila on January 03, 2021

Um livro excelente sobre pandemias, pré-COVID, com muitas lições que se transpõe agora. Snowden é um historiador que transformou seu curso sobre pandemias em um livro, o que gerou um material bastante abrangente e bem fundamentado. Snowden dá um panorama sobre várias epidemias passadas, quais foram o......more

Goodreads review by Sara on February 07, 2021

Epidemics and Society is a great book for readers who really want to know the details about the main epidemics that humans have faced so far. This book was written from a series of history lectures at Harvard, so it is expected to have some level of detail that can sometimes be considered excessive.......more

Goodreads review by DrWJK on May 18, 2020

A Status Report on Darwinian Biological Warfare Frank M. Snowden is sounding an alarm. The human species is engaged in biological warfare with microbes – bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Tens of 1000s of viruses, 300K species of bacteria, and multiple parasites lay in wait, ready to cause human mise......more

Goodreads review by Stephanie on April 28, 2020

I’m not sure how much this book succeeded in advancing theories of how epidemics impact society. I felt it was more descriptive of the etiology of diseases, responses to them, and the sociopolitical context of where the epidemics took place, rather than analyzing the disease’s impact on culture and......more